I Feel Your Pain
by Paranormal Medicine
Summary: Draco Malfoy has prided himself on his fairly solid control over his emotions, but what will he do now his emotions aren't the only ones he has to deal with, all the time trying to keep his new found ability a secret no HBP R
1. The Great Escape

Disclaimer: i don't own Harry Potter or anyof its characters, please take a moment to recover from the shock of this.

Summery:Draco Malfoy had always wanted power, something unique, something that made him special...this was not what he had in mind. AU sixth year, (no HBP)

AN:my first HP fic, it may seem a little random and/or fast paced at first but all will make sense in time, now as for the plot, I didn't want to make this one of those stories where the main character gets super powers and suddenly becomes a different person, although Draco will be making some non-slytherin friends(yes one is a gryffindor), rest assured, there won't be any Draco/golden trio(and Ginny) friendship, thats not to say they won't be in the story just that they're not going to bond over Draco's change or anything. Oh and theres no OC's so don't worry about possible Mary-sues:)

Draco Malfoy was not suited for care of magical creatures.

It probably had something to do with the fact that he just didn't care about magical creatures.

He didn't want to know why bowtruckles were hyper active in the spring, it never occurred to him to pick up a book and find out how unicorns reacted to alcohol and despite what his name may imply he had no inclination whatsoever to know whether or not dragons really were allergic to mayonnaise.

It just didn't seem important.

From his experience, bowtruckles were always nutters, regardless of the season, he had never really intended to get smashed with a bunch of magical horses and should he find him self in a situation where he was confronted with a dragon he highly doubted his first instinct would be to hurl any kind of sandwich spread at it. 

His complete lack of fascination with this particular subject ment that he would often find himself standing to the back of the class silently setting blades of grass on fire. 

His little boredom killer had been working fine for the first few weeks of term, Hagrid had just been happy he wasn't wreaking to much havoc and the other students were far to enthralled with the lesson to notice.

After hearing the word vomit used for the 6th time that lesson Draco really wondered how it could be possible for this many people to pay so much attention to something that apparently had no control over its digestive system, yet there they all stood, eagerly listening to Hagrid raving about how cute the little heaving mass of fur was.

He rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the blade of grass he was in the process of incinerating. The wind was blowing rather ferociously and the little flame kept extinguishing before the blade burnt fully. After lighting the blade for the 5th time and successfully destroying the it he found himself idly comparing the process to a cremation, he had been there when they'd cremated his grandfather, Abraxis, his mother had wanted to just burry him but Luscious had insisted he be cremated, something about dark spells using 'bones of the father'. As he had watched his the coffin enter the incinerator he had had the insane desire to pull it back out, as if just by that he could save him from the flames and he wouldn't be dead anymore, he'd hated the feeling he'd had afterwards, like he'd just seen his grandfather burnt alive, and all he'd done was stood and watched.

Draco felt a sudden irrational sympathy for the other blades of grass that had just seen there brother so brutally murdered, this was followed but the barley suppressed urge to smack himself in the forehead. 

He was feeling sorry…

_For the grass!_

But try as he might he couldn't help the small spread of guilt for the foliage nor could he avoid more random sympathies for it.

_All anyone ever does is walk on it, and what do I go and do? Sit down turn my attentions to it, giving it a false sense of security and the BAM, up in flames it goes! And all the other blades, its FAMILY, have no choice but to watch and wonder if they'll be next or if the have until next lesson, after all this is what happens to all blades of grass, there are no other options! Just like me!_

"Okay" thought Draco, trying to quell his crazed inner voice "I have to stop relating to the greenery."

Unfortunately all this served to do was send his mind into another tirade.

_Oh Merlin, as if it hasn't got enough problems without having mine dumped on top of it, all its doing is minding its own business being grass and suddenly here I am sucking it into my emotional turmoil!_

The rational part of him tried to argue logically that it was grass and therefore could to be sucked into any emotional problems, but it seemed to be shocked into submission by this random burst of uncontrollable plant-empathy.

After a few minutes of silently arguing with himself over whether or not the grass had feelings, his new-found-inner-hippie-monologue somehow managed to sway him its way of thinking for a split second, but that was all it needed.

His mind jumped into action thinking furiously of a way to make it up to the grass (and trying rather valiantly to ignore the fact that the word 'projectile' had entered Hagrid' s repertoire since he'd last tuned in). Deciding on the appropriate course of action, he moved to sit on the step up to Hagrid's hut and muttered a quick charm. 

At first he wasn't sure it had worked, the grass still looked exactly the same, but then slowly, one or two little blades seemed to wiggle upwards until they popped right out of the ground, sprouting little green feet in the process, the other blades soon followed suit, dislodging themselves from their 'dirt prisons'.

He scanned his eyes over the grounds to see that about half of the area seemed to have fallen under the enchantment. The other students had yet too notice but a few of them were giggling slightly, probably due to the grass under their feet wriggling around. A minute passed and there was a shriek from one of the girls who had undoubtedly just seen a little grass-man and the class was suddenly in an uproar. People were screaming and jumping up and down trying to avoid the creatures, Hagrid was staring around in shock, clearly at a loss as to what to do. The grass-men, had apparently decided to seize this opportunity to escape and were sprinting all out towards the forest, all them that is, but one. This particular grass-man, had just wormed its way out from under Ron Weasly's shoe, its right leg, had apparently been crushed under the weight of the Weasel King and it was half-heartedly attempting to kill said weasel by way of poking his ankle, a process that it seemed to believe was very effective judging by the way it kept stopping and hopping about with glee before returning to its task. Weasly, seemingly growing annoyed by its antics, kicked it off.

"Piss off grass arse!" he yelled, using what he clearly thought constituted as wit, before turning to help Hagrid calm the masses.

Draco glanced around before leaning down and scooping the little blade up and holding it carefully in his open palm, it turned what (judging but the direction its feet were facing) was probably its front towards him and seemed to study him for a second before giving what he could only assume was a nod and hopping unceremoniously into his pocket. He was about to pluck it back out again when a large shadow loomed over him.

He slowly brought his eyes up to have them met with the furious black gaze of Rubeus Hagrid.

"Think that's funny Malfoy?" he questioned angrily.

Draco was about to argue but stopped himself just in time, better for them to think it was a joke than the truth, which at this point he had decided was that he was completely off his rocker.

"Terribly" he replied coolly, smirk in place.

The half-giant launched into a lecture but Draco was hardly listening, it was taking all his will power to ignore the little voice which apparently wasn't done messing with him yet.

_He has every right to be mad, I completely mucked up his class, and he is so insecure about his teaching skills and he's just a little bit curious as to how the grasspeole mate an-_

He balled his hands into fists and forced his mind to latch on to something else.

"Never payin no attention, treating-"

_True, true it's really disrespectful, that's got to be really- wait WHAT!_

"-S'not like I don't try to teach ya, you jus-"

_Think of something else, any thing else! Ummm...HISTORY! the battle of Liptess Acorus, over 500 dead, hey weren't 20 of those giants, wow heaps of wars have had giant casualties! Hagrid must feel so-_

"WHAT THE HELL!"

Hagrid stopped speaking and looked at him strangely, he wasn't the only one, the few people who hadn't fled at the sight of the grass-men were staring at him like he'd grown another head. 

"Uh" grunted Hagrid cautiously, "you feeling okay?"

"FINE!" shouted Draco, his voice several octaves higher than usual, even as said it he could feel 'the voice' starting up about how the half-giant would **_feel _**about being lied to.

He twitched.

"You're just looking kinda pale" he paused, "-er"

Although he hadn't meant it as a joke there were a few giggles from the crowd.

Anger bubbled up in the blond, this was getting out of hand, he closed his eyes and focused all his energy on suppressing the voice. Something clicked.

No voice.

His eyes popped open in surprise, that was easier than was expected.

His class-mates watched in horror as a smile bloomed on Draco's face, after all, anything that caused the self appointed king of the smirk to abandon his usual tactics could not be good.

Plus he had exceptionally nice smile, which is not something any non-Slytherin should express horror at thinking.

Hagrid actually took a step back "maybe you should lie down for a bit Malfoy."

Draco actually laughed at this, he smiles and people jump to the conclusion something's wrong, apparently this was the wrong course of action as it only seemed to back up the classes suspicions.

"Maybe we someone should get Madame Pomfrey." piped Lavender Brown.

Still slightly giddy from the voices retreat he turned to face the girl and tried his hardest to glare before his face his face went completely blank.

It was back.

_I shouldn't glare, she's actually worried, and not just for her, for me! And just a little...hopeful! What! Why is she hopeful? Holy crap is that lust, LUST! Right now she is both worrying about me and contemplating jumping me! GAHH it's growing!_

His shock must have shown because Hagrid was now waving a hand in front of his face.

"Malfoy, Malfoy you alright?"

"I think this is over Pomfrey's head," said Seamus solemnly "we need Dumbledore."

That snapped him out of it, he quickly re-shut his eyes and forcibly tuned out the voice again. This time when opened his eyes it took only seconds to train his glare on the Irish boy.

"Really Finnegan, **_you_** think?" he spat, thankful his voice had returned to its normal pitch.

If he was expecting anger he was sorely displeased, there was a collective sigh of relief and a few mutters of 'oh thank Merlin' to which Draco rolled his eyes.

"Well" said Hagrid, also seeming quite pleased "class dismissed then."

As the people dispersed more than one of them shot looks in Draco's direction, he ignored them, right now all he wanted to do was go up to his dorms and pretend he did not just feel sorry for the oaf, sadly, not everyone was content to be ignored.

"Draco!", that was a familiar voice, Blaise, definitely, but he could avoid Blaise, at least for now, he wouldn't have to pay attention unless it was-

"DRACONIS MALFOY YOU WILL PAY ATTENTION TO US!"

-Pansy.

Pansy Parkinson, was used to getting what she wanted, information, clothes, test subjects for her potions and when what she wanted was denied, someone would pay dearly. In other words, she was exactly like Draco. For a while they had thought this would mean they would be good together but when 2 people who always get what they want disagree the chance of one of them losing a limb went way up, for this reason they had decided that perhaps it was better just to remain close friends… or as close as 2 narcissists can be without feeling as if the other is jelous and plotting their demise.

Cringing, he turned to face her as she and Blaise marched over.

"WHAT WAS THAT!" she screamed, throwing her hands around wildly

"Nothing, I'm just not feeling well" he lied, hoping to convert he anger into sympathy.

It worked, her expression softened considerably, "what's wrong? Are you sick? Did someone make you sick? Was it Potter? I bet it was the slimy little-" She, like Draco also had a certain talent for finding ways to blame everything bad on Potter, they made a game of it sometimes, he would comment on how Potter living with muggles meant he'd been driven around in cars allot which let off exhaust fumes and how therefore global warming was entirely his fault, she would fire back about how his last name was Potter which had the word 'pot' in it and since he was idolized by so many who wanted to be just like him, this of course meant that he was solely responsible for ALL drug abuse.

"- do-gooder, infecting poor Draco, he-"

"Too true Pans, too true," said Draco, cutting her off mid-rant, "I'm gonna go get Pomfrey to give me something kay?"

"You want us to come with you" she asked concerned.'

"Yeah" said Blaise, speaking up for the first time in a while, "make sure she doesn't slip you something?" Most people would think this was a joke but the truth of it as that Blaise was unbelievably paranoid, completely convinced that there were conspiracies everywhere and that everyone else but him (and possibly Pansy and Draco) were in on it, in fourth year he had refused to go to the Yule Ball because he thought the weird sisters put subliminal messages in their music and 2 years prior to that he was telling anyone who'd listen about how the Slytherin line had experimented with cross-breeding and the heir was actually a house elf who was petrifying the muggle-borns through their dinner, it had taken the sorting hat forever to place him because he had gotten it in his head that the hat was in fact going to scramble his brain if he didn't focus all his thoughts on cheese, all this served to do was make the hat try to calmly explain to Blaise that there was no specific house for people with a great love for cheese, which in turn prompted Blaise to protest that there should be a house for it, though he'd never given Draco the details of the argument, the blonde had long suspected the hat had placed Blaise into Slytherin because of his apparent great ambition to create a school house devoted entirely to cheese.

Draco shook his head "Nah I'll be right on my own" with a quick nod to them he turned on heel and made his way up to the castle.

But he didn't go to the hospital wing, Seamus had been right about one thing, this was over Pomfreys head, she'd probably just tell him he bonkers and cart him off to st Mungos, but if Finnegan thought for one second that he was going to go see that muggle-loving idiot, he had another thing coming! If he was going to tell anyone about this it would have to be someone who could help him but wouldn't actually care enough to tell any off the staff.

A triumphant smirk graced his lips and he quickly changed course.

What he needed was a Ravenclaw.

AN: just wanted to apologise if I got Draco's grandfather's name wrong as I have misplaced my copy of HBP, I'll fix it soon if it is, updates may be slow at first but they should speed up soon.


	2. Strait From the Moose's Mouth

**Disclaimer-I don't own Harry Potter or any of it's characters...for now, mwahahahaha... wow that disclaimer is soo over used, I should really think of somehting better...and I will...eventually...any minute now...**

**AN- thank you sooo much for the reveiw it was really apreciated :),just in case anyones wondering 'the voice'is NOT draco's consc ,the next chapters already written so ill post that soon, I'd say tommorow but I'm in the middle of a big move so internet access is limeted.**

It didn't take long for Draco to make his way to the mounted moose head that served as the entrance to the Ravencalw common room, he always wondered why the house for book-worms had such an undignified entrance but they didn't seem to mind.

After just a few minutes of waiting a small first year wandered into the hallway with his nose in a book.

He rolled his eyes, how cliché.

"Oi!" he yelled at the Ravenclaw.

The boy immediately looked up and for a split second froze in fear, Draco smirked and tried to focus on how glad he was that in sighted fear rather than the fact that at this particular moment he could HEAR said fear.

"Lycan!" shouted the kid, "the- the pass- password, its lycan….th-that's what you wanted right?...y-you're not going to- to rip off my earlobes are you?"

"Um…" said Draco, slightly put out by how easy that was, "I wasn't really planning to, no…who told you I ripped off earlobes?" he asked, but as soon as the kid had heard the 'No' he was gone.

Shrugging, he turned back to the moose head and muttered the password, the moose's mouth elongated unnaturally until it was big enough for someone to pass through, he stepped inside and froze.

He had never been inside the ravenclaw common room, he only new where it was because his Aunt Andromeda had been one and had told him where it was, he wasn't aloud to talk to her much for some reason. To put it shortly, it was like walking into Blaise's mind.

As soon as he entered a good 30 pair of eyes shifted from various books to him and eyed him suspiciously, as if they were already concocting reasons why Draco Malfoy entering the Ravenclaw common room was really a cover up for something more sinister. Not that that Draco Malfoy entering the Ravenclaw common room wasn't sinister enough in itself.

"Ahh" stuttered Draco, uncommonly nervous, "don't mind me, I'm just...doing some research"

They were still staring.

Recovering slightly from his initial shock, he drummed up his usual confidence, "Now I know I'm gorgeous but is the staring really necessary, couldn't you all just shoot lusty looks my way every once in a while?"

Most of them just muttered darkly and turned back to their books, while others blushed and looked away, only 2 peoples stares continued to stare.

He eyed them up and down critically, mentally calculating the pros and cons of each of them

Subject one: Terry Boot

Pro-is intelligent

Con- was in DA

Pro-is unlikely to talk to me more than necessary

Con-half blood

Pro-is curious about my 'research', would not tell, thinks I might have something-

His eyes widened as he thought back to his last train of thought, how had he known that? Trying (and failing) to convince himself that he was just reading Boot's expression, he let his thoughts wander to the second subject

Subject 2: Luna Lovegood

Pro- is strong with loyalties, is unlikely to tell

Con-is loyal to Potter…which is just…weird

Pro-if she did tell, it's unlikely anyone would believe her, being Loony Lovegood and all

Con-was in DA

Pro-will…think out side the box

Con-may replace box with some non-existent 3 dimensional shape and become quite at home in it and refuse to explore other ideas

Pro-feels sorry for me, therefore will probably help

Draco decided to just plain ignore that last thought.

Looking pointedly at both of them he jerked his head towards the…moose hole and walked out.

Luna followed almost instantaneously, Boot seemed more reluctant but followed none the less.

As the moose closed its mouth behind them Draco opened his own and was about to speak when Terry cut hi off.

"Is this about what everyone's saying happened in care of magical creatures?"

A look of utter confusion flashed across Draco's face he wondered how the news could possibly have reached the castle this fast.

Nodding slightly hesitantly, he shook of his bemusement and tried to speak again to be once again interrupted by the ravenclaw boy.

"I'm not helping you charm the rest of the grass, Malfoy, you'll just have to figure it out on-"

"He didn't enchant the grass," stated Luna bluntly, "it was already enchanted, all grass is, he just helped them escape" she offered Draco an approving smile "and it's about time someone did."

Terry rolled his eyes "all grass is not ench-"

"THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE GRASS!"

The Ravenclaws turned their attention to the fuming Slytherin.

"Then what did you want?" asked Boot, confused

"Its about…" he trailed off, how exactly would he phrase this, he couldn't very well just come out and say 'I hear voices', somehow that didn't seem like it would go over to well.

"I… I have problem."

Boot scoffed and rolled his eyes but couldn't hide the small hint of curiosity that made its way onto his face.

Which is exactly how Draco knew he was curious of course, it had nothing to do with any kind voice what so ever.

"A problem?" he repeated gazing questioningly at Draco, "what kind of problem?"

"Well the problematic kind obviously." Shot Draco defensively, how was he supposed to explain this without sounding like he belonged in at a funny farm?

Boot glared "I don't need this! Either spit it out or suck it up Malfoy!"

Draco raised an eyebrow at the now blushing Ravenclaw, it was obvious that this was a rare out burst.

Lucky for Draco he thrived of the discomfort that the Ravenclaw's body language was practically screaming, it took a moment for him to realize it really WAS screaming!

_He never talks like that, really he doesn't even know why he said it! He's so confused! And now he's curious again, why DID he say that? He's not prone to strong emotions! This doesn't make any-_

"NO!" yelled Draco, startling his fellow hall-dwellers, "you!" he pointed at Terry, "Stop…THINKING!"

The other boy looked at him strangely and furrowed his brow as if he was at that very moment disobeying Draco's command, "stop thinking?" he questioned, a trace of amusement in his voice.

"NO!" shouted the Slytherin again, "I don't mean….just quit….Feeling so loud!" the voice in his head was still prattling on unperturbed

The Ravenclaw clearly had no clue what he was talking about so he took a shot in the dark, "is this a 'Slytherin prejudice' thing?"

Draco's face was red with frustration…or at least a faint red….fine it was a nice pink…tinge.

"STOP!"

His grey eyes suddenly found their view disrupted by a hand that was sumushing his face, he reached up and yanked it away glaring at its blonde owner.

Despite her yell, Luna appeared perfectly calm witch only served to fuel Draco's anger, he was supposed to be the calm one!

"Now," she began "it is clear what is happening!"

A wave of relief washed over him, someone knew what was happening, he wasn't crazy it was all-

"You're a noitome releef!"

Draco promptly slammed his head into the nearest wall, sadly, the girl was unaffected.

"Now you should be fine, just watch out for those Dementors, to close to one of them and your brain will implode, oh and you should probably-"

Boot was glancing around seemingly weighing up his options, from where Draco was standing, neither of them would look promising to the ravenclaw boy, he could stay there and hang out with theses two people, one of which was complaining about the volume of his feelings and whose head was(if the other of the pair was to be believed) had implosion tendencies or he could retreat inside the giant dead animals freakishly elongated oral cavity which, unless Draco was terribly mistaken, had just winked at him. His curiosity clearly won out against his utter confusion and he gazed intently at Draco, ready to listen to his problem, unfortunately, eye contact hadn't really been working with Draco lately and the little voice raised its volumes several notches.

"Look away, look away!" He hissed, slowly, Boot complied.

Shutting his eyes as a safety measure, Draco took a few calming breaths before continuing, "We can't talk here, to open"

Terry nodded, before remembering the blond couldn't see him," yes," he clarified, "lets go to the library"

Had they not been closed Draco would have rolled his eyes, a ravenclaw wanted to go to the library, and people wondered why Hogwarts housed so many stereotypes. The reality was that once you were sorted, you became the stereotype, those that went to Ravenclaw saw the others reading and therefore to busy to talk so they to would read, Hufflepuffs would be helping each other with homework or explaining a particularly complicated qudditch maneuver and so the new ones would follow, that's just how it was, you may not have been likely to attempt to slay a dragon (with or without the aid of egg byproducts) when you entered Gryffindor but given that particular habit of getting into those types of situations you sure as hell better learn! It was however, very disconcerting to have people assume that once you went into Slytherin you came out evil, just how someone made the jump from 'healthy ambition' to 'pure, unadulterated evil' Draco wasn't sure, all the bad assumptions that were put into Slytherins were probably responsible for most of the non-mudblood related prejudice that came out of it.

Despite the predictability, he nodded agreement and opened his eyes before leading the way.

The walk was made in silence except for the occasional greeting from Luna to passing mice. Upon reaching the library the group took a table in the back and Draco began to speak.

"I have been-" It didn't last long

"You could read my feelings" apparently Boot had been taking advantage of the silence to do some thinking "or rather, you could hear my feelings"

To say Draco was surprised would be putting it lightly.  
"HOW THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU KNOW!"

To say he was subtle about this surprise would probably result in accommodations of the padded room kind.

There were a few minutes in which Madame Pince and the other occupants of the library took time to glare and inch away from him respectively.

"Well it was kind of obvious," stated Terry, matter-of-factly, after the staring had passed, "you said I was 'feeling to loud' so I just made my deductions from that"

"That's all you went on? Does this happen often or something?"

The Ravenclaw boy shook his head "Nope, never heard of it happening before, although I can't say for certain it hasn't, it was either that or you were completely insane and option I haven't exactly ruled out by the way"

"Yes, yes well neither have I so why don't you get your little books and tell me what's wrong so I can go back to pretending I've never spoken a sentence to you that wasn't 'move' or something to that effect" said the Sytherin in a rush.

Terry narrowed his eyes, "No" he stated simply.

Draco matched his glare "What do you mean 'no'?"

"I think," interjected Luna, who up until this point had been wandering around the library and clapping when someone said something particularly witty, "what Terry means is that he's not just going to drop it after he finds out what it is, and neither am I," a slightly maniacal look appeared in her eyes "we're going to study you!" she emphasized this statement by throwing her arms in the air and looking at Draco expectantly, as if she honestly thought he would shout 'YAY!' and agree.

His actual reaction was to leap out of his chair, eyes wide.

"You know what never mind, I'm sure I'll get over it-"

"Wait," ordered Boot, attempting to fix the blonde girl's mess, "We're not going to 'study' you, per say, we're just going to, track your progress."

"My progress?" questioned Draco, "The plan is to get rid of it, there's not going to BE any progress!"

"Well then your progress towards getting rid of it" Luna shot.

"I- well….that's…FINE!" he shouted, once again using that undetectable subtlety, "Then you two… GET TO WORK!" And with that he stormed out.

Terry turned to his fellow Ravenclaw, a surprised look on his face, "that was smart, that whole 'progress towards getting rid of it thing', very clever" he lifted his hand ready to give her a hi-five.

The girl turned to him and started to thank him when her large eyes caught sight of his raised hand, she leaned in close to it, studying the air in front of it.

"Ahhh, I see it," she began swatting at the air, "I'll get it!"

Terry rolled his eyes and turned to enter the stacks, he had disappeared from view in seconds but he still heard the delighted cry of 'GOTCHA' and the slightly more disturbing one of 'IT'S YOU, WE MEET AGAIN!' that echoed from the blondes lips.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

After and hour of stomping his rage out around the castle and successfully convincing Pansy that he wasn't too sick and Blaise that Pomfrey made no moved to fill his ears with radio active peanut butter, Draco found himself back at the entrance to the library, he didn't want to go in there, if he went in there their was a good chance he was going to have to hear Boot and Loveood's utter fascination with his case, even now Madame Pince's frustration with the students was whispering softly through the doors.

He was about to just turn around and leave when he fealty something tickle him.

Now that he wasn't expecting, he almost groaned as realization struck him, slowly, hoping that what he was thinking was wrong, he reached into his pocket and drew out the little crippled grass man who'd taken up residence in there, the blade gave what could be seen as a stretch or wind movement depending on how much you knew bout the situation, before hopping to its feet and directing its front towards him.

"What do you want!" snapped Draco, glaring.

The grass-man did not react and for a moment he thought it had lost its charm, he reached out a finger to poke it, the second it made contact the blade jumped excitedly to his finger and scampered up his arm, perching itself on his shoulder and faced his….face.

Grey eyes kept trained on the plant and slowly a trickle of emotion drifted thorough his mind.

_He's challenging you, he wants to stay._

For the first time since the voice had began its 'lets-make-Draco-crazy' crusade, the Slytherin did not react by screaming or some other behavior that could be described as strange, he nodded at the blade.

If grass could look superior then that's what this blade would've been doing, it straightened its self up, before turning towards the door and pointing its tip towards the door as if to say 'onward!'

Draco complied, feeling unexplainably more confident with the grass-man on his side.

Stepping into the library he marched up to Boot and Lovegood.

Terry glanced up from his book and did a double take on the blade, who 'stared' back defiantly.

"What...is that?" he questioned curiously.

"It's my pet." announced Draco, unwilling to admit he had no clue what species to call it by.

Boot was suspicious, "what's its name?"

"Umm" he stumbled, before settling on a name, "_His _name is Mongoose."

This announcement was met with a blank look.

"Mongoose?"

Draco nodded another burst of creativity hitting him (his own thankfully) "Noose for short."

"Why Mongoose?"

The blond smirked "They kill weasels."

Terry rolled his eyes but a small smile slipped out despite his best defenses, which was strange, Terry Boot had always been able to control his emotions before this.

Taking this 'small smile' into account as a clue, Boot returned to his book looking for anything related to 'inspires emotional displays'.

Draco turned his attention (cautiously) to his other Ravenclaw companion. She too was reading one of her hands however was cupped to the table, as if holding a caught fly.

"Uh…Lovegood?"

A high pitch scream was her response.

The girl drew a hand to her chest, her eyes wide with shock.

"I didn't see you!" she explained, still trying to catch her breath.

Draco did not bother mentioning that 'I didn't see you' was hardly a good excuse for screaming bloody murder.

Instead he turned his attention back to her cupped hand.

"What are you holding?"

She immediately beamed with pride, "don't ask me! Terry saw it first!"

Terry lifted his head from his book just long enough to slam it into the table before continuing his work (which, he noted, was also an unusual display of emotion).

Deciding to give up on his question, Draco grabbed one of the spare books off the table, propping it up in front of his face and pretended to read, what he was actually doing was playing with the recently dubbed 'Noose'.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"UREAKA!"

15 minutes later both Draco and Lovegood were interrupted by this yell.

Terry Boot held his book high above his head, a triumphant look on his face, "I have cracked it!"

"YES!" yelled, Draco leaping from his seat.

Luna, feeling left out also jumped up,

"PEPORONI!" she exclaimed, the two boys looked at her strangely.

She looked blankly back before realization dawned on her face,

"AND CHEESE" she added, smiling reassuringly back at them.

"Right…" Terry nodded, still confused, he sat back in his seat, "umm as I was saying,"

He turned to a now seated Draco, "You, Malfoy have been hearing people's feelings, and I've been being rather loose with my emotions"

Draco gave him a look, "I fail to see how you being fickle has anything to do with my problem"

Boot glared, "I'm not saying I'm," he made a face "'fickle', I meant that my emotions have been flowing more obviously when your around,"

Draco continued to give him the look.

"Quite you! Just listen to me" exclaimed Terry, "I looked under emotion related headings and this is what I've got," he pushed his book towards the other two.

_**EMAPATHS**_

_Formerly human creatures-_

Draco winced

_-emapaths are indistinguishable from regular witches and wizards, however these creatures-_

Another wince.

-_possess several traits that the general population does not. The most widely recognized of these traits, is the ability to hear emotions. Manifestations, magic channeling and lower level mind reading are among the less acknowledged attributes.-_

"Whoa," said Draco, a grin lighting his features, "mind reading?"

Luna shook her head "lower level mind reading, you'll get like 2 words every once and awhile, nothing substantial."

Terry blinked "how did you-?"

The blonde girl simply tapped the Ravenclaw emblem on her robes.

They three looked back to the book, Draco with less enthusiasm then before.

_Usually a result of severe emotional repression, empaths in this day and age are almost non-existent, the last known empath (Hannah Malin) died in 1786 when one of her manifestations set her entire house on fire, since that time no individual has had a combination of emotional repression, basic magics and significant tea consumption of the right proportions to provoke empath genetics to activate._

"Tea?" repeated Draco and Terry simultaneously.

"Tea is a powerful substance" answered Luna nodding sagely, she read on silently before adapting a smug look, "told you so! I said you were a noitome releef!"

After a moment a small smile bloomed on Boot's face.

"Noitome releef, emotion feeler backwards" he paused and gave her a quizzeled look "why'd you say it backwards?"

She shrugged, "why not?"

During this short conversation Draco had bee reading down the page, he suddenly paled…more so than usual.

"What's wrong?" asked Terry leaning over, he quickly read the part Draco was up to,

_-being in the presence of an empath has been known to cause emotions to leak out more freely, this was sometimes used on criminals to provoke guilt before the invention of vertiseurm, the empathy pulls the emotion from the subject and subconsciously examines it and converts it into words they can hear and understand, the exception to this rule is of course the dementer, when the dementer sucks happy emotions from the room the empathy has nothing but depression to feel, empaths who encounter dementers have been known to suffer from pain induced madness, severe bleeding from the ears and eyes and in cases of prolonged exposure-_

"Brain implosion" finished Luna triumphantly, shutting the book with a snap.

Terry shook his head at her pointedly, this didn't seem like a great time for an 'I told you so' moment, it seemed more like a 'sit in silence and don't provoke the depressed Slytherin so he wont manifest that depression and drown us all' moment.

The blade of grass that proceeded to tap dance across the table did not seem to agree.

Surprisingly Draco did not bat it away as Terry had expected, he simply watched as little Noose clip-clapped (had his feet been making sounds) his way across strait into to Luna's waiting palm.

"Awww" she cooed, tickling him, "cute lil Goo"

Draco let out a bark of laughter, "Goo," he repeated, later on when he was asked why he was showing such good nature towards them he would go into a long winded explanation about the shock of finding out that should he go to prison his brain would implode, at least, that was the planed story at the time.

Luna nodded absently, "Goo" she confirmed.

The Slytherin leaned across the table and plucked the blade from Luna.

"Surely you don't intend to allow her to call you such an un-manly name" he said, on other people it would have seemed a playful thing to say, Draco however seemed genuinely confused at why his little Weasley-killer would submit to the name 'Goo'.

Noose clambered back to his earlier perch on Draco's shoulder but gave no further explanation, emotional or otherwise.

The faintest trace of a smile ghosted across the blond boy's face as he watched the blade launch into another dance number, but it was gone in a second as he remembered the 'Claws.

He glared, "I suppose you two want to keep" he cringed "studying me?"

"We're not studying we're-"

"Yeah, yeah tracking my progress, what I mean is, there's no way to deter you?" his face brightened, "what about money? I could give you money!" he exclaimed, although if the 'little voice' was to be believed they were far to interested for that kind of persuasion.

Terry shook his head, "nope, that's your Achilles not mine, I'm all about the research"

"Nether, the Quibbler's fans have really picked up lately so money is not an issue, besides, it's nice to talk to people"

Most people would have felt too bad for her to keep pushing, Draco was not most people.

"Well can't you talk to Potter and his merry men?"

To both boys' shock, she actually giggled at this statement.

"Merry men, that's funny!" she didn't bother to take a moment to sober up, she just let the laughter run its course, though he never admit it, Draco respected that, if only a little.

When the giggles finally did subside she remembered the original question, "Harry's very nice but his friends sometimes look like they're he laughing at me and since last year he's been trying overly hard to be nice to me. Its no fun to talking to someone whose scared to speak their mind to you" it was the longest either of the others had heard he speak without referencing some bizarre creature.

Luna herself seemed unaware of their shock as she simply sat back it her chair and had a quiet chortle.

"Merry men"

Shaking his head slightly, Draco stood, "well then, I'll meet you too here same time next week-"

"Tomorrow" corrected Terry, also standing, "there's a few things I want to test" the slight predatory look on his face made Draco wonder just what 'tests' were, and how many of them would involve needles.

Deciding it better not to ask, the blond boy simply nodded agreement and turned to leave, Noose had other ideas.

He leapt from Draco's shoulder and began to dash full pelt towards the stacks, ignoring his master's shouts, not knowing what else to do, Draco ran after him. He did not have to run far, crouched behind a shelf was Seamus Finnigan, who, judging by the look on his face, had heard everything.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

**AN- Look into the button, look deeeeeep into the button, its calling you, its saying 'reveiw!', so you should probably follow that direction, wouldn't wan to anger the button, it might...remain motionless...yes now you're scared!**


	3. That Bloody Leprchaun!

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Seamus' smug look lasted for a split second before Draco slammed him into the shelf, while the Slytherin may not have been particularly tall or bulky, he was still pretty strong.

"Whoa now Malfoy," whimpered the sandy-haired boy, causing Draco to roll his eyes, oh how brave the Gryffindors were.

Apparently having the same thoughts on his mind, Seamus took a deep breath and glared back.

"I'd watch yourself Malfoy," he snapped, "wouldn't want me to let your scary-brain-imploding sickness to anyone important."

To his credit, Draco didn't let his fear show, "Like you aren't going to blab it to the first person who happens to cross your path," He rolled his eyes, "honestly Finnigan you're a bigger gossip than Millie"

Seamus' looked confused before a look of disgust graced his features, "Millie? As in Millicent Bulstrode? Well I… have never actually spoken directly to her and therefore do not know how big a gossip she is but I can safely say I'm offended at being involved in any reference to that ,what I can only assume judging by her being in Slytherin and all, cow."

Draco blinked, running over the statement.

Nope he was right.

Finnigan had not taken a breath.

Shaking his head clear the Slitherin raised his wand.

"Oblivi-"

"WAIT!" shouted Terry, who up until this point had been silent, probably debating weather or not to intervene, after all, as interesting as the empath thing was, he still wouldn't mind seeing the Irish man beat Draco to a bloody pulp, which, despite what Draco seemed to think, he could.

"Memory charms are dangerous! You could wipe out half his mind!"

The empath rolled his eyes, "No it won't, charms is my best subject"

Boot stopped to consider this statement, "I thought potions-"

"Potions" interrupted Draco, "is my easiest subject, Pansy's excellent at it, I just copy her," he gave the Ravenclaw a disbelieving look," how could you not know that, Hello! Charmed a field into living beings!" as if to emphasize this point, Noose did a couple of back flips before landing on his injured leg and giving up.

"Still" said Boot, shaking his head, "if anything went wrong you'd be in big trouble, unauthorized memory charms are illegal!"

Lowering his wand (though not putting it away) the Slytherin gave Seamus a contemplating look.

"Alright then Finnigan," he grumbled after a moment, "what can I do to make you keep this to yourself."

Seamus gave a Draco-esque smirk , "Not a thing"

It took a moment for his words to take effect on Draco as the blond was busy cringing at Finnigan's butchering of his smirk, sadly for said Finnigan, it was only one moment.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NOT A THING'" even as he said it he could hear the Irish boy's smugness

_hes got you and he know it, looking forward to it in fact, he's freaking giddy!_

Seamus didn't flinch, 'I mean that I am going to walk out of here and go into the great hall and announce it to everyone there, before watching satisfied as they drag you off to experiment."

Four simultaneous responses were received.

"You Bastard!"

"There's a better way to-"

"Who are 'they'?"

Kick!

Okay so 3 were received, the forth went unnoticed by anyone except for the little grass man who delivered it.

Sifting through these, Finnigan settled on the most interesting, he turned to the Ravenclaw boy.

"A better way?" he questioned.

"Well," stumbled Terry, slightly unused to the attention, "if you do that now, Malfoy will be dragged off and you'll get your 15 minutes of fame, but that'll only last a few days, then he'll never be heard from again, however, say you waited a bit, until Malfoy had more control over these," he paused looking for a non offensive term, "powers, then he's likely to put up more of a fight, he might escape and if you've been following his progress then you can warn the authorities as to what he can do." Behind his back his fingers were crossed.

Seamus looked suspicious, "that's all you want, for me to wait?"

"Yep," answered Luna, catching on, "just wait for a good breaking point."

The Irish boy contemplated this for two full minutes before nodding agreement, "Fine" he clarified, "I'll wait."

Draco wondered silently why he had waited the extra minute to tell them even though he made his decision after the first, there were some perks to this emotion-reader gig.

"Great" he moaned, "one more to join the 'study-group'."

"We're tracking your-"

Draco glared at Boot before looking to Luna for confirmation.

She nodded, "like a rat in a maze."

Terry rolled his eyes, "We do actually still have a problem."

"Yes!" agreed Seamus quickly, glaring at Draco "The midget is yet to release me!"

The glare was returned with equal malice, "If I'm such a midget then release yourself!"

The Gryffindor raised his eyebrows and proceeded to do just that pushing Draco away (and causing Draco to fall over but the day Draco admits to that is the day Dumbledore is declared legally sane).

"Seriously Malfoy you could have gnome in your blood, Loony's taller than you!"

Though it was true, the Slytherin did not have time to reply as 2 things happened simultaneously.

The first was quite subtle, Luna lowered her eyes the ground showing a rare moment of unhappiness, the second was that Noose gallantly bounced from the floor, ricocheted off the book case and landed or Seamus' shoulder, once he reached this destination he moved gracefully onto the Irish boy's nose and poked him in the eye.

Twice.

He probably would have continued had Finnigan not brushed him off, sending him tumbling to the floor.

The moment Luna saw this she swooped down and grabbed the little grass man, this seemed to remind Seamus of her presence, he paled.  
"Luna, right, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- I just"

"Its fine" she replied, in a rather stiff voice, "besides, I'm not the one you should be apologizing to!" she held Noose up to his face expectantly.

"Umm," he stumbled, "I guess- I mean I', sorry?" he half questioned.

Luna was not satisfied, "'I'm sorry' what?" she prompted.

"I'm sorry-"

"Noose" Draco supplied, practically giddy, seeing the humiliation was fantastic enough but feeling it was just perfect.  
"Goo!" Luna corrected.

The blond nodded allowance "Goo."

Slightly confused, Seamus continued "I'm sorry that I pushed you," he faltered, "Goo."

_He can not believe he just said that! He's actually in denial! Oo the veil is lifting, oh the embarrassment! The anger! The severe desire to crush me into bug or bug related creature!_

Draco's cackling was drowned out by Luna's excited yell of "YAY, NOW YOU'RE FRIENDS!"

While Go- I mean Noose, did not seem to agree with this statement he made no further moves to blind the Irish boy and simply jogged (limping slightly) back up the length of Luna's arm and settled on her shoulder rocking back and forth.

Confused, Draco looked intently at the blade, trying to figure out his motives. No rush of emotions hit him so he simply stood there until Noose leapt the large distance between himself and Luna.

"That would explain it then" he thought, slightly happy that he hadn't heard the Blades emotions.

Terry cleared his thought for attention, "excuse me but as I tired to say before we have an actual problem!"

"Right, problem" repeated Draco, "explain." He ordered.  
"Well, you don't like us,"

Draco raised an eyebrow, "Your figuring this out now?"

Boot rolled his eyes, there seemed to be a lot of that going around lately, "what I mean is if you have any developments with this and we're not there you can't exactly walk up to us at dinner to tell us, it would raise to many questions."

The blond boy bit his lip, that was a problem, and with over observant nut jobs like Granger running around some one was bound to notice it.

Seamus, however, had a solution which he then informed them of calmly.

"OOHHH! I KNOW! I KNOW!"

Yes, he was almost tranquil.

"Shut up you bloody leprechaun." Hissed Draco, "do you want to alert the whole library!"

"Sorry," he seamed to remember who he was talking to "I mean HA I SHALL ALERT WHOM EVER I FEAL IS WORTHY OF ALERTEDNESS!"

Draco looked about to scream right back, thankfully Terry interrupted.

"Leave it Malfoy, everybody just stay calm, that's what's best, right Luna," he looked at his fellow 'Claw for help only to find her gazing off into space mouthing the word 'alertedness' to herself, he sighed and turned back to the other boys "What's your idea Seamus?"

"Well" said Finnigan, a dramatic edge to his voice, "I happen to have, on my person some parchment purchased from Mr. George Weasly before his untimely exit from the school"

At the same time as Draco lazily repeated the word 'parchment' Luna yelled "HE'S DEAD???"

Seamus gave her a quizzeld look which then turned sheepish, "No, I just wanted to make it sound more, you know, exciting!" he paused waiting for a 'bravo', when none came he continued, somewhat disheartened, "It's not just any parchment," he snapped, "it's a comuni- comuna- ummm talking thingy!"

The Slytherin raised an eyebrow, "'Talking thingy'"

Seamus nodded, "Yep!," he pulled said 'talking thingy' parchment sheets out, there were at least 5 of them, "see if I write something here," he scribbled a message on one sheet, " it appears on the others!"

Each of his companions reached down and grabbed one to read the message. There was a moments silence followed by an 'OW' as Draco stamped on Seamus' foot.

"Bloody leprechaun" he muttered darkly.

"Oh I'm the one who needs scolding! Me! Merlin I have never wanted to be a dementor this badly in my life!"

Draco perked up, "you've wanted to be a dementor?"

"Umm, no," Seamus gave him a quizzeled look, "what you have?"

"Of course" he nodded eagerly, "I spent my first 5 years on this earth wishing I could suck out peoples' souls!"  
Terry rolled his eyes, "And what exactly has changed since then?"

Draco ignored the joke and answered anyway, "Mother got a little tipsy and accidentally left me outside the leaky cauldron,-"

"Lemme guess" interrupted Seamus, "you saw an actual dementor and was scared out of you mind"

"What? No, I wandered into one of those muggle 'video shops' and saw a movie on one the little TVs," he smiled fondly, "then I wanted to be Godzilla."

Terry was concentrating o a different part of the story, "does your mother get 'tipsy' a lot?"

"No! She was taking me back from a party, everyone there was drunk!" he glared at the Ravenclaw, "how dare you insinuate about my mother," he barely held back the spitting taunt of 'halfblood'. In truth, his mother had been rather distant (and yes, a bit 'alcohol inclined') up until the summer after 5th year, she had given him his birthday card with his name spelt wrong, 'Drakeo' he had been mildly hurt by this and had questioned her about it at which point she had burst into tears and hugged him, swearing of alcohol in general before marching out to empty the house of it. This had all happened rather quickly and Draco still wasn't entirely sure why it had happened at all, sure he was a little hurt by the misspell but she'd gotten 4 letters right which was 2 better than last year.

"Sorry," Boot quickly apologized, seeing the effort the blond was taking to remain calm, "that was out of line."

Slightly taken a back by this admission, Draco just nodded and got back to the almost forgotten original subject.

"So I just write whatever I need to tell you lot one here and you can see it, okay I can do that" a smirk played its way onto his face and he turned to regard Seamus, "now Finnigan, I know these nerds can probably read sixteen syllable words but your right down the other end of the spectrum, should I stick to three letter words for you?"

The Gryffindor fumed silently.

"Oh woops," said Draco taking on a strained look, "sorry Finnigan, do you know what a syllable is? Should I talk slower? Good Merlin I think I broke him!"

Seamus lunged for the Slytherin's throat but Draco was far to quick for him, darting out of reach. He shoved the parchment in his pocket and was out of the library in a second.

The Irish boy glanced at the Ravenclaws angrily.

"That little imp-whatsits-"

"Empath" Terry corrected

"With a mean streak like that can you really be sure hes not an imp? Any way he better Learn some manners if he wants me to keep his 'problem' to myself!" with that he too stormed from the room.

Terry sighed and turned to Luna.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, I mean, Malfoy with super powers, it seems a little…well suicidal."  
But the blonde haired girl was staring in shock in the direction Seamus had disappeared.

"He sounds exactly like my grandmother," she stated in awe, "same tone, same pitch, exactly the same, cept she's usually threatening with no desert rather than total exposure of empathic powers"

There was nothing Boot could do except sigh again.


	4. Release The Spy Toads!

**AN- Ok so thank you Punkindoodle for your reviews, I really truly appreciate them, I've taken your suggestion into account and have 'jazzed up' the summery as best I could, any way, one with the fic!:) **

Frequent bouts of uncontrollable hysterical laughter, Draco had decided, were a bad way to convince people of your sanity, sadly however, a certain emotion reading 'condition' seemed to have missed that memo. The problem was that people at Hogwarts were far to…happy, there was freaking war going on and yet 9 times out of ten eye contact with a passing student would result in five full minutes of laughter. This was such a time.

"DRACO!" Pansy yelled for what had to be the 5th time, "for the love of money what the hell are you laughing about!"

It was an odd sight to see Draco Malfoy laughing and attempting to kill passers by with death glares.

"I'm" gasp "not" gasp "trying to!"

Blaise, who was studying the scene, suddenly stepped in, "he's probably been hit with a tickling curse! This has got to be what, the 4th time this week he's done this laughing thing? He doesn't usually laugh that much in a month! I bet its Potter or the Weasel King!"

The Slytherin girl nodded, eagerly accepting another opportunity to blame this on the trio, "Or Granger," she added, "she's smart so she might have figured out how to do it with out being seen!"

Draco, who had finally stoped laughing, straitened up and surveyed the confused audience to his hilarity.

"Go Away"

And in a second only he Pansy and Blaise remained.

Pansy smirked "Now Draco, see what you've done, you scared everyone away," she glanced around before adapting a sulky expression, "including the muscle," she looked to where Crabbe and Goyle had been just moments before.

"Good," said Blaise, nodding defiantly, "I don't want those two here, no since all the...you know" he gave them a pointed look.

He received blank ones in return.

"You know!" he stressed again, "thefts".

Draco rolled his eyes, "For the last time Blaise no one is stealing your toothpaste! You used it just this morning"

"That wasn't tooth pastes! It was a substance disguised as toothpaste designed to fool me into brushing my teeth with time turner dust to make my teeth age!"

"Why would someone want to make your teeth age Blaise, WHY?"

"The question isn't why Pan, its who!" He nodded sagely

Draco pretended to contemplate this for a moment before speaking up, "no, no she's right, its WHY!"

Blaise smirked condescending before looking concerned, "you ok Drake? I mean the laughing thing, what's up with that?"

"Is it Potter?"

"Is it the ministry?"

"Weasel?"

"Mudblood?"

"Potter?"

"You already said that".

"I really think its Potter…is it?"

"I," he stumbled, searching for a believable lie, when none came to him, he took the easy route, "yep defiantly Potter."

"Arrrgh I knew it! That- that –that…POTTER!" she finished, seemingly satisfied with this insult.

"Mmm," agreed Draco absently, "I've got to go do my arthmancy essay, see you at dinner."

Pansy narrowed her eyes, "you've been spending far too much time on your homework recently and not nearly enough time complementing my most glorious hair".

The blond rolled his in response, "I'll be sure to fix that…right after I do this essay" and with that, he turned and sauntered away.

His Slytherin counterparts started after him confused.

"Did he just…saunter?"

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Said sauntering Slytherin, was not, as you may have guessed, doing homework, he was in fact contacting a select few seemingly unrelated individuals via way of magical paper.

As you reasonable people would have guessed.

_Library, now _

He quickly scrawled those two words on his parchment and watched for a second as they melted away before pocketing it and heading down to the library himself. The past 4 days had been hell. Every time he looked at someone their emotions would shoot into his mind, usually interfering with his own and causing…'emotional displays' and his 'study buddies' were not helping, in fact, as of yet their little get togethers had consisted of Boot attempting to draw blood form an unwilling Draco while Finnigan and Lovegood had thumb wars.

He arrived to find Luna already there, and warming up her thumb, reluctantly, Draco took his seat next to her.

"You got here fast," he muttered, making conversation.

"I was already here" she said, giving up on her 'exercises' and looking at Draco, he was just a little frightened to see she was smiling.

"_She's afraid," the voice whispered, "a great desire to stay hidden" _

While he was surprised at the detail of the desire the voice had gone into, that did not distract him from the main message, a malicious smirk made it's way onto he Slytherin's lips, "hiding from the people?"

To his infinant annoyance, she just smiled bigger, "hiding, yes, from the people, no" she lent closer, "from the ministry, they've released the spy toads"

"Of course they have" he rolled his eyes and glanced around the library, "where are they?" he asked, more to himself

"Everywhere" she whispered conspiratorially

"Not the toads Lovegood"

"Oh, right, I look for toads, people look for people," she recited, "Terry's probably getting his syringes in case you let him draw blood, and Seamus is just chicken" she relied, gesturing to her thumb to account for Seamus's…chickenness.

Sure enough a moment later Boot burst into the near deserted library, equipment in hand (and threatening to crush him under its weight).

"Hi, I came as soon as I got the message, where can I jab my needle!" he rambled excitedly.

"Nowhere" the blond explained hurriedly, unconsciously covering the veins in his forearms the Ravenclaw was staring at so avidly, "you're here because you're supposed to be researching a way to stop this! Everyone thinks I'm off my nut! Scratch that I have no nut, my nut has been replaced with a raisin!"

"You say this like it's a new development, Malfoy" a familiar voice came from behind him.

Seamus stepped into view smirking, "do you really think we ever gave your mind enough credit to assume it could possibly process a sane thought?"

"Well its got to be the opposite for you Finnigan," Draco spat back, "just today I gave you enough credit to assume that you wouldn't be afraid to come here and stand up to a girl!" he flicked his head towards Luna, who was giving Seamus a threatening look and waving her thumbs wildly.

The Gryffindor frowned, "For your information ferret, I was late because I had to be sure this wasn't another one of your 'jokes'"

Now it was Draco's turn to smirk, over the short period he'd been forced to communicate with Finnigan, he'd taken to playing little jokes on the boy via the magic parchment, telling him he needed to go to a class room immediately only to have him burst into Snape's class, yelling 'WHATS WRONG'. Snape had not been pleased to say the least.

"What did you have to do for that detention again?"

Seamus mumbled something indistinct.

"What was that?"

He sighed, "Practice my silence"

Terry gave him an incredous look, "Snape really does not think much of Gryffindor intelligence"

"There's a reason for that"

"Ferret-"

"Leprechaun"  
"Half-blood!"

"MALFOY SCUM!"

"SON OF A BLOOD TRAITER!"  
"SON OF SOMEHTING… SOEMTHING MUCH LESS SAVORY TO SAY THE LEAST!"

"ARRGGGHHH YOU- YOU- BLOODY- YOU"

"Malfoy," said Boot calmingly, "you going to want to calm down," he glanced down at Draco's left hand, "quickly".

Draco stared blankly at him for a second before following his gaze to his hand where he found Terry's problem.

It was on fire.

Later Draco and all those involved would thank whatever spirit happened to be listening that no one screamed, a certain Slytherin did however, forget how to breathe for sometime.

After what seemed like an age, he experimentally moved his fingers, it didn't hurt.

"I can't feel it".

Terry let out a sigh of relief and Draco could have sworn Finnigan scowled, he didn't actually get a chance to check as at that moment a very pissed Luna Lovegood clubbed him over the head with a book.

"YOU SAY THAT PART FIRST!"

He looked at her bemusedly...although that could have been from eh book tot the head rather than actual confusion "What?"

She rolled her eyes "when your hand spontaneously combusts the FIRST thing you do is say it doesn't hurt! I was worried".

Now he was absolutely sure it was the book to the head, "why?"

"Because if you weren't then who would look after Goo!" she looked at him disdainfully, "You didn't even think about him! YOU ARE A TERRIBLE MOTHER!"

"Umm, ok, you know what Lovegood, if I die, you can be his…mother" he grimaced before turning back to his hand, "What am I supposed to do about-"

"WHAT IS GOING ON DOWN THERE?" Madame Pince's yell echoed down the stacks. The table they were sitting at was thankfully concealed from the rest of the public by the shelves but it wouldn't take more than ten seconds for Pince to get there.

Boot's eyes went wide, "Quickly! Put it out!"

"HOW!" Draco bellowed eliquiting a screech form Pince.

"Shhh" hushed Seamus, "I don't know, stop being angry!"

"Hey it was YOUR anger I was channelling! You stop being angry!"

"I have!"

"Then why are you yelling!"

"Aquari!"

"Oh well done Boot, now not only is my hand on fire but my robes are wet, Pince will freak!"

"Malfoy!" Luna interrupted, "Do this" she mimed drawing her arm back and throwing, too desperate to think it through, Draco copied her motion, to his surprise and relief, her Flame flew from his hand, the relief was short lived however as it shot towards Madame Pince who was just then rounding the corner, it hit the bottom of her skirt, she yelped and immediately looked down, the group of now-arsonists did not waste this distraction and shot past her and out of the library before she could see their faces, once out of the library they didn't stop running until they reached the entrance hall, each of them out of breath, except, strangely enough, for Draco.

Seamus was the first to recover and shocking all those around them, he smiled widely at Draco.

"That," he stated plainly, "was THE coolest thing, I have ever seen!"

The blond smiled in return, very nearly causing those around him to faint, it didn't last however, as he turned to Terry and fixed him with a curious look, "If I…if I didn't get rid of this, could I work out how to do that again, on purpose I mean?"

"Well first off its not a decision, you CAN'T get rid of it and second, you'd have to be around someone feeling a strong emotion but yeah, you could do it."

"I think i'm already learning" the slitherin shot slyly.

"And why is that?"

"When we were running, you were all really excited or nervous or whatever it was like I could feel it, all of it, as if it were mine, anyway, I kind of, well it felt like I breathed it and then I had this major adrenalin boost".

Boot smiled slowly "That's why you weren't out of breath." he concluded happily.

"Yep, and I think, I could have gone allot faster too, all that energy," he trailed off as he seemed to remember who he was talking to and he adapted his trademark sneer, "Well just cause its cool doesn't mean I like having to burst into laugher every time I walk past a-," he cringed, "happy person"

The Raevnclaw boy rolled his eyes at the dramatics but continued unperturbed "Well I think you could at least learn to control it, like you did with the running, feel the emotion, see it, but let it pass through, rather than absorbing it".

After several seconds of studying the floor critically, Draco abruptly swung around and brought his eyes to meet Lovegood, immediately he was hit with a flood of emotions.

_Confused, very confused, but what else! _

For the first time, he pushed deeper, actively seeking out something stronger.

_And…there! She thinks it's funny that I'm staring! _

He felt the laughter start to bubble and abruptly focused everything he had on relaxing his mind, slowly, he felt the laughter drain out of him before disappearing completely.

He smirked triumphantly, "Like that?"

Terry's grin was just as smooth, "Something like that, yeah".

"Are you quite done!" snapped Seamus, seemingly rekindling his Malfoy-hate.

"Yeah, we're done." the Slytherin shot him a smirk before making towards the great hall, it was time for dinner to start.

"Draco!" came Luna's soft call.

He glanced back at her and nodded for her to continue.

"I'm glad it didn't hurt!" she smiled cheerily, before skipping past him into the hall.

He waited a moment before following although he distinctly heard Finnigan's mutter o f "why?!"

He shook his head and made his way over to the Slytherin table, placing himself in his usual seat, Goyle on his left, Pansy or his right, and Blaise directly across.

"You get your essay done?" Pansy questioned absently.

"Yeah, it went fine".

Blaise was not so easily sated, "I heard someone set Pince on fire," he lowered his voice, "I think it was Dumbledore".

Draco almost choked on the celery he was currently attempting to eat.

Pansy rolled her eyes and flicked one of her dark curls out of her soup where it had recently taken up residence, "Yes Blaise, of course it was Dumbledore, as he is so well known for his love of arson!"

"I'm just saying it's rather strange for someone to choose a pet that bursts into flames so often, he's a pyromaniac if I ever saw one!"

"But you haven't seen one!" she screeched back, exasperated.

"Yes I have!"

"WHO?"

"DUMBLEDORE!"

The Slytherin girl put her head in her hands and took a few deep breathes.

"Blaise," interrupted Draco, barely hiding his laughter, "I was in the library all after noon and Dumbledore didn't come in, being a pyromaniac doesn't give you the power of invisibility."

At this Pansy perked up, "but you know who _has _been at least partially invisible," a wicked predatory grin plated itself on her lips, "Potter!"

The empath could feel his Friend's certainty building with each passing second and smiled slightly, absolutely positive that by the end of dinner, she'd have concocted a theory that explained how Potter not only started this fire but all these fires that had proceeded it in the history of the world, it was amazing really, that with the fierce loyalty she had for Draco, that she had not become a Hufflepuff-

"I WILL find proof this time, Potter will NOT get away with it again"

Then again there was just a smidge more ambition to her than loyalty.

"So," the blond interrupted her ramblings, "did I miss anything else interesting?"

Pansy was too caught up in her rant to pay attention and Goyle was inhaling his food and couldn't speak, that left only Blaise to answer, that was never a good course of action.

"YES! So many things! I saw a very, VERY suspect looking witch watching me, but Pan kept saying it was just that Ravenclaw Patil girl and she wasn't watching me, but she was, cause later she spoke to me! Asked me all kinds of weird questions, 'how are you' 'its nice weather we're having', 'why do you keep glaring at that butterfly', really shifty stuff" he paused before adding absently, "oh and the ministry released the spy toads."

Draco's eyes shot up and he was about to question his friend further when Dumbledore stood up, immediately the hall was silent and for a second Draco wondered what the hell Seamus had meant earlier, that silence was clearly the coolest thing he had ever seen.

"Students" the old wizard proclaimed, "I regret to inform you that this afternoon, our dear Madame Pince was set on fire," the was a collective gasp and the odd snicker form the crowd, "she is fine, however, the flame in question is currently residing on one of the library tables, and it wont go out, we believe what we have is a particularly strong eternal flame, I think it should only take a week or so for it to die, but the real problem lies in who its conjurer is, giving the strength of the flame, it is likely that it was made by particularly dark magic and for this reason, those few dementors that have not turned to Lord Voldemort," a collective wince, and a lone voice pleading 'Don't say his name!' followed by 'Ronald!', " will be brought, once more to the Hogwarts gates to prevent a dark wizards entrance, thankyou"

Hurried whispers filled the hall.

"An eternal flame" muttered Blaise, "sounds like the kind of thing a pyro- OWW PANSY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR"

The girl in question lowered the spoon previously used to wallop her friend.

"That was my very subtle way of telling you, YOU'RE A MORON!"

Draco barely heard a word of this exchange, his mind was elsewhere, he looked to the Ravenclaw table to find a large pair of eyes looking back, Luna flicked her hands around wildly and mouth something indistinguishable.

Dementors were coming to the school, if he walked past one, even looked directly at one then-

Luna's message was clear,

-Boom

**AN- Reviews, good or bad, I simply refuse to believe that all but one of the people who read this story had no opinion of it at all, heck, even if you are completely neutral to it, drop me a review to let me know of your complete indifference! **


	5. A Gooey Surprise

**AN- Reviews, good or bad, I simply refuse to believe that all but one of the people who read this story had no opinion of it at all, heck, even if you are completely neutral to it, drop me a review to let me know of your complete indifference! **

**AN- I don't know whether its still or yet to be St Patrick's day yet wherever you guys are but its today here in Australia so HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY! Just a few things, I know it seems like the chapter structure is really repetitive right now with the whole 'Draco finds something weird, he calls a meeting, the talk and explain it' thing but I'm going to get the plot moving soon and it will pick up from here, once again people please do review as while I fully and completely appreciate and love Punkindoodle's reviews (seriously I probably would have just let the story go without them) it's kind of discouraging to have only one person giving any kind of feed back.**

The Dementors weren't due to arrive at Hogwarts immediately so in the last 3 days, Draco had relaxed considerably, deciding that he would simply have to avoid them when they arrived, while Boot seemed to doubt this plan's effectiveness, he had yet to come up with anything better short of simply telling Dumbledore which Draco had flat out refused to do, as far a he was concerned he was all right.

Looking down at his dinner the blond Slytherin decided something,

**_This_** was **_not_** right.

It was so not right, you might even call it **_wrong_**.

Yes that was the word Draco was looking for, wrong.

That was the only possible way to describe whatever the strange gooey film coating his dinner at that particular moment.

Trying to appear casual, he lifted his spoon and poked experimentally the fluro pink substance, the spoon moved straight through it, not the faintest trace of friction. He cast a confused look at Blaise across the table and had to stop him self from gagging, his meat was also covered in neon slime (green this time) but unlike Draco, Zabini hadn't even noticed and was chewing avidly on his steak, slime dripping from his lips. it was then he realized with horror, that every single piece of meat, was saturated with whatever this stuff was, lots of different colors, and no one seemed to care, then it hit him. They didn't care because they couldn't see it.

They couldn't see it.

But he could.

He scowled.

Stupid empath powers.

Summoning up all his determination, he cut off a square of the steak and shoved it into his mouth…

And almost screamed.

It was no different taste wise, and he couldn't even feel the goo but the moment his teeth sunk into it all he could think of was how frightened he was, he felt like he was in pain, thought he couldn't physically feel it, he was just so scared.

After a few failed attempts he finally managed to spit out the offending food, and began desperately raking his fingernails down his tongue to remove any reminisce, the fear subsided and he found himself under the confused stares of the slitherin table.

"Is there something wrong with your food Drarkey?" cooed Pansy, her green eyes still fixed on his silver ones.

He considered ducking his head and mumbling a negative when it struck him that the Great Draco Malfoy ducked to no one, and it just so happened that HE was the Great Draco Malfoy.

"Yes!" he nodded decisively, before leaping from his seat, "Those stupid elves are messing with my food!"

Blaise almost had a heart attack as he dropped his fork and spat out evereything in his mouth all over Millicent Bulstrode. he ignored her growel and jumped onto his seat and dived accross the table to clutch Pansy's face.

"OF COURSE!" he yelped, "THE ELVES ARE AT IT AGAIN! STOP OR THEY'LL PETRIFY YOU!' he tried desperartly to pull a half eaten chicken wing from Pansy's mouth, which she held onto with surprising ferocity.

Leaving them to what would coem to be remebered as the day Pnsy Parkinson nearly blinded Blaise Zabini with a chicken bone, Draco walked away from his table, quickly crossing the floor, he glanced back with feigned anger at the 'tampered' morsel before making for the door, yelling something about incompetent slaves while trying to subtlety stop his heart from pumping a mile a minute.

"Your food doesn't look any different to ours!" yelled Potter form the Gryffindor table, Draco spared a glance to Potters dinner, which was, unbeknownst to him, oozing a thick silver goop, it looked like unicorn blood.

He smirked.

"Trust me Potter, it does."

He swept out of the hall, leaving a very confused audience.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

A half hour later found Draco and his 'study group' at the top of the astronomy tower, each of them shivering.

Finnigan glared "So let me get this, you called us up here because your dinner tasted funny."

"No" The Slytherin hissed, "It didn't taste funny it just…hurt"

"Oh it hu-" Seamus was cut off by an exasperated Terry Boot.

"I think what happened" he began pensively, "is that you were seeing and feeling the animal's residual emotions."

"Wha-"

"You mean," Draco cut in, "that that fear and… all those feelings are what the cow was feeling when it died?"

Boot nodded solemnly.

For once the blond was speechless, it was strange, he knew he didn't care about that cow but he couldn't bring himself to think of it dieing.

"I think," he stumbled finally, "I just became a vegetarian"

Seamus sniggered, Draco couldn't blame him, here was Draco Malfoy, ruler of Slytherin, largely considered to be heartless, declaring that he was now a vegetarian.

Luna just smiled, "I couldn't do that, and I'm a carnivore"

Boot smiled in return, "like your meat?"

She nodded, before her smile "it's all I eat. Vegetables are to pretty to eat"

It dawned on Terry that she wasn't using carnivore as an exaggeration but he chose to ignore it.

Draco's brow furrowed, "wait, I've felt what a plant has before, why doesn't it have the goop?"

The Ravenclaw boy bit his lip, "I suppose it might show up on them too, after all, it took a couple of days for the meat to get it."

"That's not it!" piped Luna, rolling her eyes, "It's because fruits and vegetable are pacifists," when she received only blank stares she continued, "easy come, easy go."

A look of understanding rose on Terry's face, "that might actually be right, when the animals die, they're scared or confused but the plants are different, it's just a quick pick and they're gone, they probably don't have as big an emotional range in the first place."

The Slytherin sighed in relief, the last thing he needed was to have ALL his food turn against him.

Finnigan looked ready to comment when Draco's head jerked up suddenly, silencing him.

"Someone's coming!" he yelped ducking down low in one of the dark corners shadowed by a few telescopes.

Seamus looked skeptical, "I don't hear anyone."

"Neither do _I_." whispered Draco, with a pointed look.

Realization dawned on the face of the Gryffindor before he too leapt into the corner to avoid being seen by whomever this newcomer Draco had 'felt' coming was.

Terry and Luna, however, were not fast enough.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Ron Weasly was tired. He was tired and he was cold and he was bored. And why, was he tired cold and bored? Because he had seen a cat, that was it. He rolled his eyes, silently wishing they hadn't landed on the feline that fateful day at the ministry. It was a few days before school started and he Harry and Hermione had gone with his dad to the ministry, while in the elevator he had noticed, what he had come to know as the 'cat of doom', it was pure white with silver eyes, at the time he had barely thought about it, there were a reasonable amount of animaguis in the ministry, it was probably just a worker, the cat had departed the elevator at the main entrance and continued on its little cat way, the next place the elevator had stopped had been on the level where the department of mysteries had been, it was currently under reconstruction since the incident last year and Ron grinned, pleased that the ministry would have more work, after all, it was their fault it had gotten so bad that they hadn't bothered to defend themselves. His joy was short lived however as several alarmed looking aurors ordered everyone out of the elevator and began frantically serching the floor, apparently something had been stolen, something important. A man in grey robes with keen, paranoid eyes peered around skittishly.

"Did any of you see a cat?"

And then Ron did something stupid.

He said yes.

The man, who turned out to be an unspeakable, had questioned him briefly over where it had gone before moving quickly after it. Ron was ready to move on but his friends were not.

"Silver eyes?" Harry had questioned, "And white fur." he nodded, looking completely convinced, "It's got to be Malfoy"

"Don't be stupid, he's in pris-"

"Not _that_ Malfoy, Mione," a significant look had been given and thus yet another investigative year of Malfoy stalking had begun. Now Ron hated Malfoy and he sorely wanted to see the ferret jailed right along with his old man, but the other, much stronger part of him wanted to be lazy, it wanted to go a whole year without sneaking somewhere or drinking something disgusting, he wanted to go _one year_ without hearing the word dead and immediately trying to figure out what had happened.

Sadly, it appeared this was not his year, and it was all because of a **cat**.

**_The_** cat.

**_The_** Cat Of **Doom**.

Okay, slight exaggeration, it was unlikely this cat would bring about the apocalypse, deatheater or not, this wasn't a **Volde**cat

As far as they knew.

He cringed slightly at the thought and quickly decided on a new, less mind bogalling moniker for '_the cat'_.

The Evil Cat Who Doomed Ron Weasly To Being Tired, Cold And Bored.

That issue out of the way, he glared silently as he and his two best friends trudged up the stairs to they astronomy tower slowly, usually this kind of meeting would be had in the library or common room, but the library had been closed (much to Hermione's dismay) since the incident of the flaming Pince (he could not repress a blissful smile at this thought) and the common room was full of people who could overhear them.

It wasn't past curfew yet so Harry hadn't bothered to take out the map but Hermione had insisted he take it with them at least, incase they were out late.

When they finally reached the freezing submit, they were rather surprised to find it occupied by a slightly confused Terry Boot and a typically dreamy Luna Lovegood.

They were at the top of the astronomy tower.

Alone.

Together.

_Ooooh_.

Ron blushed and bit his lip to keep from laughing at the horrified look of embarrassment on Boot's face.

"Oh," said Hermione softly, looking between the two of them, "I umm, I didn't know you two were-l"

"We're not!" shrieked Terry, "I mean, I-we weren't"

"Lets go Terry" sighed Luna airily, "I'm tired" she batted her eyelashes at her fellow Ravenclaw and dragged him from the tower.

Ron blinked several times before allowing himself to laugh freely, he was quickly joined by Harry.

"Well" he chocked after the laughter had died, "that was…unexpected"

Hermione looked utterly lost, "But he's so sensible! And rational! And this is," she scrambled desperately for a word, "irrational!"

"As love so often is!" crooned the redhead, clutching his heart dramatically while Harry snickered softly.

She shot him a glare and shook her head before moving on.

"So we know there was a cat and we know it stile something."

He could have sworn he'd heard Harry snort but his best friend wore a perfectly serious expression, he wouldn't have blamed him if he had, the sentence sounded ridiculous.

The black haired boy cut in, "What we know is that the cat looked like a Malfoy!"

Had they been listening harder, one of them would have heard a quite choking noise.

"And," Harry continued, "the current free-range Malfoy is Draco"

Ron laughed a little at the words free-range but pushed it aside quickly.

"We don't know it was Malfoy, it could have been anyone-"

"It just happened to look exactly like Malfoy did as a ferret in cat form?"

"Look, let's just think of a way to figure it out ok?"

We each nodded and began to think, well Harry and Hermione did, Ron simply sat there trying to remember a good warming charm.

"Well," ventured Hermione cautiously, "I guess we could do like we did in second year, with the pol-" she cut off abruptly and glanced around suspiciously, "did you hear that?"

Both her companions nodded, they had it was quite but it sounded like a foot step, Harry started rummaging through his pockets for the map while Ron walked blindly towards where the sound has come from, the far corner…

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Draco was furious, they had been about to reveal a secret and then Finnigan had gone and tripped, now they were going to get caught.

While he silently mimed killing the Irish boy, Seamus frantically tried to think of a plan to stop the advancing Ron.

"Do something!" he whispered in hurriedly.

"What!"

"Use your powers!"

"How, there isn't anything I can do that won't just draw more attention!"

"Well" Seamus willed his mind to work, and it hit him, "but there is! When you feel like you want to disappear, be invisible, that's got to be a world wide feeling!"

"But its not, what do you even call that!"

"Who cares what you call it, just try it!"

The blond rolled his eyes briefly before shutting them and searching.

_Fear, no that's useless, umm curiosity, what? Oh right, the weasel… look into Finnigan and…that's it! What ever the hell 'it' is this is it!_

Screwing his eyes up as tight as he could, Draco concentrated everything he had on that feeling he could hear Ron's footsteps reach the corner and prayed that when he opened his eyes, there wouldn't be and angry red head.

His eyes snapped open. There was Ron, he was looking straight at him.

Then something surprising happened.

Weasly shook his head in defeat, glancing uselessly around Draco, "No ones here!" he called back to his friends, not even sparing the Slytherin a second glance.

Potter looked down at some parchment he was holding and nodded agreement.

"Well this was a bad idea anyway" informed Granger, "anyone could hear us! We'll find somewhere else."

Ron turned away and his cloak brushed Draco's face, or it should have, instead he just felt it go right through him.

Granger's fellow trio members followed her as she marched down the steps and left the tower.

Draco stared in shock, what had just happened, he glanced over and Finnigan for help, only to find the there was no Finnigan , his eyes widened and he looked urgently down at where himself was supposed to be, only find it missing to, he quickly closed his eyes and aloud himself to relax, exhaling happily as he felt himself materialize (quite an interesting sensation).

He looked blankly at the newly returned Seamus to find him staring just as blankly back.

"Wha-" the Irish boy tried, "wha- what just happened…were…were we invisible?"

"Nope," the Slytherin shook his head, "we were…nothing, Weasly's cloak, it went," he lifted his hand to touch the place the cloak had been, "right through me."

Slowly Finnigan's shock morphed into a smile which morphed into full blown laughter which Draco joined him in.

"I- I cannot believe we got away with that!" he gasped.

Draco just smiled, relieved beyond words.

"Uh Malfoy!" a new voice called, "You there? Seamus?"

"Here!" he yelled back, recognizing Boot's voice. He stood up along with Seamus and trotted over to the Ravenclaws.

"That," Terry began, "was the most humiliating moment of my life! Did you see their faces! They thought we were, 'together' us, that's not right, it's not how this is its," he flailed around for a moment, "its irrational is what it is!"

Snickering slightly at Boot's unintentional channeling of Granger, he barley hear Finnigan launch into a description of what had happened, due to the sudden wave of exhaustion that had set in, obliterating 2 people from the earth, even for a short period of time, really took it out of you.

Luna smiled wearily at him and whispered reassuringly, "its alright, evading the toads has left us all pretty drained"

In his state on fatigue, even this gibberish seemed to comfort him. He stumbled quietly back down the stairs, the rest of them in tow, before he could make his departure, Finnigan pulled him aside.

"Did you do it?" he asked solemnly, "Did you steal what they think you did?"

Draco raised his eyes to meet the Gryffindor, "No" he announced truthfully.

Seamus simply nodded and hurried away, presumably back to Gryffindor tower.

Luna soon after bid him goodnight (but not before she checked to see that he hadn't left any body parts it 'the void', apparently he had left behind his all important 'Gulta', what that was supposes to be, Draco didn't know.) leaving just him and Boot.

Terry gave him a serious look, "These dementors, they're going to be a problem, you can't just ignore-"

"I can," he interrupted, "and I will." He nodded goodbye to the Ravenclaw before descending to the dungeons, he barley made it to his room, before collapsing on his bed and falling asleep due to, what he assumed was exhaustion from the disappearing act, he did not notice, on his trudge through the common room, Pansy's odd mixture of concerned and hurt glances as she tried and failed to come up with a reason her friend would disappear for an hour and then come back completely drained with no explanation on, that could be blamed on Potter, he missed the worried Blaise, who looked on as the blond all-but feinted onto the bed, wondering whether the toads were finally getting to him or if Draco was just stressed from dealing with his eccentric friends, the reason, however, is not one that any of the three Slytherins had come up with, it was due to something a certain Ravenclaw had tried to warn him against, Draco owed his tiredness to a great many something's that were currently hovering into the school grounds, one by one.

The dementors had arrived.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

**AN-R&R!**


	6. Flirty Myrty & Snape the Muggle

**AN-Two things to say, I couldn't find Urquhart's first name so I just gave him the word 'unkown' in Latin for his name, if he actually has one please let me know and I'll change it, also I just wanted to mention that I've made it so Pansy replace Merlin/God with money when she speaks, just thought it was the kind of thing she'd say**

The first thought Draco had, when he awoke the next day was that his head was going to explode.

The second was that it was going to implode.

The third had to do with muffins.

It was at this point that he decided to stop counting thoughts and just focus on the first 2.

He weakly pushed himself up and tried to recall memories he assumed would be laced with fire whiskey, instead all he remembered was the misadventure at the astronomy tower.

He groaned, all this pain and he hadn't even gotten drunk. He clutched his head thought back to the night before.

Should this really be taking this long to stop hurting?

He shook his head slightly before standing and making for the bathroom.

He made it about 3 steps.

The dull throb suddenly became a full fledged shriek, and it was taking allot to keep his knees from buckling. He looked around frantically for what could have caused the flare up, but saw nothing, he did however feel something. It was cold, very cold, and it was empty and it was eating at him, it wasn't all consuming but it was defiantly there.

Stumbling into the bathroom he glanced at himself in the mirror and was shocked.

He had paled considerably during the night and his checking appeared sunken, this was not how his faced had looked yesterday, he looked closer, and those were not his eyes.

The eyes staring back at him were no longer the keen silver ones he'd been accoutered to but a dark grey swirl that practically blended with his pupil. Staring for a long second me noticed something else, the swirling effect, well that was because they were actually swirling. This instantly quashed any belief that 'eyes were the window to the soul', his eyes were clearly evil all consuming vortexes.

He bit his lip as he watched them spiral, inwards, it almost looked as if they were being sucked-

Oh no.

They were going _in_.

_He_ was going _in_.

He slammed his head into the mirror as thought number 4 wormed its way into his head.

Dementors.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

THUMP!

Blaise Zabini's head abruptly jerked from its pillow.

"WHERE IS THE HIVE LEADER?"

Theodore Nott rolled over in his bead, groaning.

"Shut it Zabini, it's too early to go hive-hunting" he muttered half-heartedly.

Blaise was not convinced, and leapt form his own bed towards the bathroom, from which he had only moments before heard the unmistakable sound of the hive leader's mating call.

It would not occur to him for another 4 hours that the 'hive' had been a dream.

"AH HA!" he shouted victoriously, bursting thought the door.

A blond figure jumped back form the mirror frightened.

"Oh," Draco mumbled after catching sight of Blaise, "its you" he immediately closed the distance between the mirror and his forehead again.

"Um Draco…" Blaise started, confused, "what are you- why are you-…did you see a hive leader on your way in here?"

A weary smile was barley visible squashed against the mirror.

"Hive?" he repeated dubiously.

"The Japanese ministry planted several of them 14 years ago to ward off trolls, they got out of control, but the ministry-"

"Covered it up?" questioned Draco, the smile still there, "you know what Blaise, I did see the hive leader, in fact, she's hiding in the mirror right now, help me look."

An eager nod later and suddenly two of Slytherins most promising students were both flat against the mirror, staring blankly at it.

This was exactly the position Theodore Nott found them in when he entered.

"What…are you doing?" he questioned.

"We," Draco announced, "are looking for the hive leader," he smirked maliciously, "and so are you as of this moment."

Nott looked on dumbfounded for a moment before cautiously walking over and leaning his face onto the mirror as his fellow Slytherins had.

After all, if Draco Malfoy thought it was important that he have a stare of with reflective surfaces, who was he to argue?

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

30 minutes, a failed hive leader spotting and seven years bad luck later, the Slytherins had arrived at breakfast and were seated into here usual places.

Draco had been utterly shocked that he had managed to keep from looking anyone in the eye yet but that had quickly given way to pain as he had entered the hall, the dementors could be felt much stronger from here.

He was to busy trying to think of an excuse for his eyes and avoiding meat in all its forms to notice the ominous presence that crept up beside him.

"Mr. Malfoy"

The blond jumped at his favorite professor's voice.

"Yes sir?" he answered politely, not turning around.

"well first of all you should know that it is impolite not to face someone who is speaking to you," he waited patiently for Draco to turn, when he didn't he raised an eyebrow but soldiered on, none the less, "and second of all I couldn't help but notice that your ear is bleeding."

Draco furrowed his brow before bringing his left hand up to touch his ear, it was wet with blood.

"Oh" he commented intelligently.

Snape rolled his eyes, "Oh indeed, Mr. Malfoy, perhaps you would like to inform Madame Pomfrey of this?"

"Uhh yeah" he nodded, his reign of eloquence continuing.

He stood quietly, ignoring the confused looks Pansy and Blaise were throwing him and scurried quickly out of the hall.

As soon as he was out, he hurried to the nearest bathroom and once again found himself looking deep into the depths of a mirror.

Snape had not been exaggerating, you really couldn't help but notice the thick bloody line, tracing its way from his ear.

He rolled his eyes, Goyle, who was sitting right next to him hadn't even detected the rather obvious blood loss.

That boy was far too easily distracted by food, honestly, it was a miracle he didn't Mexican wave when the food arrived.

He was lucky Snape had intervened before someone else did. Like Pansy, she would have screamed and alerted the entire hall.

He sighed and began moping the blood from his face with a hand towel, hoping the bleeding would stop before this got to suspicious…well more suspicious than it was then.

When he was done it seemed the bleeding and stopped, probably because he wasn't as close to the dementors as he had been in the hall. Fast footsteps tore him away form his reflection just in time to see a flustered and out of breath Terry Boot toting several heavy looking books.

"You. Owe. Me" he panted.

Draco furrowed his brow, "For what-"

"These," he said, nodding to the books, "are all the books the library has, that reference empaths in any way, I just stole them"

Draco blinked, shocked, a Ravenclaw had just stole books, what was the world coming to.

"But…why?"

Boot looked exasperated but answered none the less, "Well where do you think the first place Hermione Granger and co. were going to go, after that bleeding incident."

The pieces fell into place.

"The library." He answered automatically, it was, after all, what he always thought of when you heard the words 'Granger', well that and 'mudblood' but that's not the kind of thing you bring up around half-bloods with excellent black mail material.

"Exactly, she would have looked up the symptoms, and known exactly what was going on."

"But how did you do that so quickly?"

The Ravenclaw glowed with pride, "I stood outside the door, and acio'd 'texts relating to empaths' and then," his smile did not falter, "I ran like I was being chased by a book-wielding, somewhat-burnt librarian. Which wasn't hard, giving that I so conveniently was."

The Slytherin laughed slightly and Terry smiled.

A girlish giggle interrupted.

Both boys glanced around wildly for a moment before there eyes came to rest on a ghost, seated on one of the sinks.

Moaning Myrtle grinned happily at them, "I'm so glad someone finally showed that know-it-all." She cooed, ignoring the surprised listeners, "she went to school with me you know? My, she did tease me something awful! Said I was far too stupid for her precious Ravenclaw house." a tear slide down her translucent cheek.

Boot watched the droplet's decent before worriedly trying to calm the moping ghost, "You're not stupid"

She cast him an icy glare, "How would you know?" she shot vehemently.

While Boot appeared lost, Draco sprung into action, "Well if you were stupid, why would I be asking for your help?"

The girl raised her eyes to his and looked at him questioningly, "You are?"

He nodded, "Yep, I wanted to know if you could warn me if the dementors around the school start coming closer." He flashed her, his most charming smile and she giggled.

"Well I suppose I could, just for you." She said coyly, biting her lip.

"Thank you so much Myrtle." He froze his smile in place, one slip up now could ruin this.

"Please," she grinned, "call me _Myrty_," from the look on her face, Draco could guess no one had even thought of calling her 'Myrty', it was probably a nick name she made up on her own that she was just hoping to hear said aloud.

He granted that wish, "Alright then _Myrty_, I'm Draco."

"It's a pleasure"

"Likewise" he was infinitely pleased that he had managed not to laugh, as of yet, "now I am dreadfully sorry, _Myrty_ but I have to go now, I'll visit you soon okay?"

She just nodded dreamily and zoomed down the sink she had just seconds ago been perched on.

He and Boot made sure they were far away from any bathrooms before they spoke again.

"Did you," began Terry, "did you just flirt with Moaning Myrtle,"

The blond threw him a devious grin, "You mean _Myrty_?"

With that both of them started laughing once more.

When Terry caught site of the Slytherins eyes, however, his expression grew serious.

"It's because of the dementors right?"

"Oh no Boot, my eyes are little swirling vortexes of doom all the time, didn't you know." He spat sarcastically.

Terry recoiled slightly at his sharp tone before digging his hand into his pocket and retrieving his wand, pointing it at the empath.

Draco's eyes widened, "Whoa relax! I was just-"

"What?" interrupted the Ravenclaw confused, he glanced at his wand, "oh I'm not going to curse you," he brought his wand level with the Slytherin's eyes, "_velieris secundum vas._" He muttered, immediately, Draco's eyes reverted to there silver gray color.

The blond lifted his hands to his face and moved quickly to an antique mirror that hung on the wall.

He furrowed his brows, "They're different, shinier."

"I didn't reverse it," Terry stated nodding, "there still all 'vortex of doom', I just covered them, it's like a glass shield." He shot him a smile, "hence the shiny."

Draco was dumbfounded, did Boot even remember his earlier sarcasm, he shook his head, he was far to used to dealing with spiteful Slytherins and hot-headed Gryffindors that a 'take-the-high-road' Ravenclaw was the last thing he'd expected.

"Uhh, thanks, I guess,"

"You guess," questioned Boot, raising an eye brow.

A smile/smirk pushed its way onto to Draco's face, "Well if it helps it was an educated guess,"

Terry snorted, "You, educated,"

At this point Draco froze, he could do one of three things, yell at Boot for insinuating he was stupid, send a biting remark back that would, if nothing else, discourage further jokes of that nature, or, he could smile slightly and send a joke back, the safest option, he knew, was the second, it would mean Boot wouldn't be so mad he would leave and also that he wouldn't get to comfortable, however, as much as he wanted to spout that one sharp remark, he didn't. He didn't yell and burn all his bridges.

Instead he smiled slightly and sent a joke back.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

When Draco finally returned to his friends, an hour and a half after disappearing from breakfast, he was immediately berated with questions,

"Are you ok?"

"Did your brain leak out your ear?"

"Was it there to begin with?"

"Pansy, can you go five minutes without insulting someone?"

"Nott, can you go days on end without speaking to me? Go on, try it!"

"I suppose that's a 'no' then?"

"Very astute."

Draco cleared his throats, redirecting his friends attention to himself, "Um hi, remember me? I was bleeding!"

Pansy's expression melted into one of sympathy, "my poor, Drakey, all gory and wounded, are you all better now,"

Draco smiled contently, if there was one thing he loved about Pansy, it was how amazingly quickly she could go from harpy look-a-like to motherly-Draco-career, it wasn't for everyone granted, if Nott were to pass out she'd be the first one to yell, 'QUICKLY! FETCH THE ITCHING POWDER!', this caring Pansy was strictly reserved for Draco and occasionally Blaise.

"Well I've stopped bleeding but…" he trailed off for a moment, before smirking maliciously, "I wonder if it's really fair for me to play Quidditch so soon after such blood loss,"

The first game of the season (against Ravenclaw) was due to take place tomorrow, a Sunday, and so not to break with tradition, Draco was going to try to postpone it for more practice time.

Ignotus Urquhart, the new Slytherin Quidditch captain, laughed malevolently from his seat by the fire, "Oh I'd dare say so Draco, wouldn't want to give those book-worms an unfair advantage."

"Merlin forbid." Blaise mock-gasped, joining the conversation.

"Such a shame." The blond tutted, "and I was so looking forward to watching Chang attempt to execute her broom again,"

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

After a few more jabs at the other teams, Draco and Urquhart headed to Snape's office, Blaise and Pansy trailing behind them. The two quidditch players had tried to avoid bringing the stragglers. Despite Snape's blatant favoritism towards Draco and Pansy's excellent potions grade, the potion's master simply did not react well to the dysfunctional team of Pansy, Blaise and Draco, they seemed to bring out the crazy in each other, but the comrades had flat out refused to let there friend go with only Urquhart for support.

"I don't care what you think! Professor Snape has not, and never will participate in any kind of muggle pride parade, HE'S A WIZARD FOR MONEY'S SAKE!"

"Ahh, he is now, but in the summer time, what is he then?"

"STILL A WIZARD"

"Not necessarily Pan, you see, there are in fact several muggles, who have used that elektricy stuff to perfect some fake wands, they use these, to impersonate actual wizards and live among us, professor Snape knows this and is seeking revenge by masquerading as a muggle over the holidays!"

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP?"

Urquhart breathed a sigh of relief, finally Draco had stepped in to stop them…

"PLENTY OF WIZARDS ALREADY PRETEND TO BE MUGGLE!

Or not.

A look of realization passed onto Zabini's face before a solemn one took its place, "I was afraid of that."

"What?" Pansy and Draco intoned in unison, causing Urquhart to groan.

"Snape," he passed for tension, "_IS_ one of the muggles!"

The dark-haired girl gasped and her companion bit his lip worriedly.

For a moment, the Quidditch captain truly doubted these were the wicked little plotters he'd held a conversation with, not so long ago.

"No," objected the grey-eyed Slytherin defiantly, "he can't be a muggle, maybe he's just…oh I know! He's gaining the muggles trust so he can trick them,"

Pansy sighed relieved, "Good thinking Drakey," Blaise nodded agreement.

"You realize!" seethed Urquhart, finally fed up the ramblings of the 6th years, "that your ENTIRE theory hinges on Snape spending his summers as a muggle, something which you have NO proof of and which is likely the result of Zabini thinking the word 'Snape' and 'muggle' in the same sentence, which in its self is an odd occurrence!"

The three younger students blinked at him for a moment before the infamous Malfoy smirk flashed from Draco's lips,

"What theory?" he questioned dumbly.

"Huh?" Urquhart stuttered, confusedly, "What do you mean, '**_what_** theory? THE 'SNAPE'S A MUGGLE'-!"

"Is that so, Mr. Urquhart." A curt voice cut in form behind him.

Horrified, the 7th year boy turned slowly around to meet with the bat-like potions master.

"I-I didn't say it they-"

"Oh you didn't? Well that is odd considering I could have sworn you just had."

"Really captain is that any kind of way to treat your professor?"

He glanced back at his fellow Slytherins to find the smirk had multiplied and now stuck to each of there mouths.

It appeared he had been reunited with those 'wicked plotters' from before.

Man he missed the crazy conspiracy theorists.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

Snape had of course immediately agreed to ask Dumbledore to postpone the match to 'keep things fair', however while professor Dumbledore had left it up to Flitwick to determine whether or not to proceed, Professor McGonagall had decided to intervene.

"No." she said simply, "not again Severus,"

"I believe, Minerva, that the decision was left to Filius," he looked pointedly at Flitwick whose eyes widened.

"Well I suppose I would be fine with-"

"No!" shrieked McGonagall outraged, "Are you really going to let him intimidate you into this."

"Professor" protested Blaise indignantly, slipping into his 'Slytherin' face, "I would have to say that a wizard such as professor Flitwick, would never be intimidated by a colleague."

Snape rolled his eyes discreetly, his house, for all its sneakiness, could be rather blatant at times.

Flitwick shot a smile at him before straightening up, "Minerva, I would not allow my judgment to be compromised by fear."

The Slytherins smirked, triumphant...

"However," the short wizard continued, "I hope that **_all_** of you realize that I will not allow flattery to sway me either, and there fore, no Severus, the match will go ahead as planed."

A flourish of anger ran through Draco as he glared at the back of Flitwick's head, he could feel exactly how much joy the professor was taking denying him.

He jumped slightly when an unfamiliar voice popped into his mind for a second.

_So there_

He looked around suspiciously, confirming that the voice had not come from any of the room's occupants, before grinning broadly.

Lower level mind reading.

Quickly stowing the grin away, he focused on McGonagall. The first wave was of course her emotions, anger, victory and satisfaction, no surprises there. After several seconds of careful study it hit him,

_Finally!  
_

He suppressed a growl, partially fuelled by the professor's anger and partially by his own. For chief representative of the 'noble' house that woman was spiteful!

The professors dismissed them and they trudged, slowly back to the common room.

"Well it was a nice idea," sighed Blaise, once they had reached the dorms, "but I guess that trick only works so many times before the morons grow a backbone, and- PANSY GET OUT OF MY TRUNK!"

The girl flicked her gaze from her friend's trunk and back again before continuing her investigation.

Draco smiled and lay back on his bed closing his eyes, trying to sooth his headache, silently thanking Merlin the Slytherin common rooms were so far away from the front gates.

He was just drifting of to sleep when a voice penetrated his docile state.

_Help…me_

"WHAT!" he shot up yelling, the voice had come with a great dose of depression and pain.

"Drakey are you ok?" Pansy shrieked.

"I'm" he fumbled slightly, looking frantically around for the owner of the voice, "f-fine. I just fell asleep, bad dream"

"You sure mate? The screaming was kind of violent."

"I'm fine." He repeated forcefully.

"Fine, fine, don't have a fit! Let's just go to lunch,"

He watched quietly as his friends trooped out of the room, wondering if this new voice belonged to one of them or if it was someone else entirely.

For their sakes he prayed it was someone else.

**AN- the spell Terry uses roughly translates as 'hide behind glass (according to the online translator so I could be wrong)R&R**


	7. Interrogation and 'shadow walking'

**AN-sorry this took so long, I've been kind of bussy, I've fixed a couple of mistakes in the earlier chapters (spelling, grammatical) and there is more Tery Boot in this chapter(as requested:)), also thank you very much to Punkindoodle, shelimar and silke knuts for your reveiws, they were very encouraging, okay well happy easter everybody and I hope you enjoy the update!**

It was unthinkable. It was mind boggling, but it was true.

Terry Boot, of Ravenclaw house, tied for top of the year, dignified, intelligent, logical, **_Terry Boot_**, was sitting under a staircase, pouting.

And he would forever be thankful that the only people who could see him would never be able tell a soul, after all, they would also have to explain what it was they were doing, huddled in a room under a stair case _with_ the pouting Terry Boot, as well as an assortment of misfits, just an hour before the quidditch match was to start.

He narrowed his eyes at the amused faces of Draco Malfoy and Seamus Finnigan.

Just because they wouldn't tell, didn't mean he wasn't considering killing them simply for having seen him pout.

His train of thought was interrupted as a slam was heard, he turned to see Luna Lovegood, wandering aimlessly into the room (it could not be called a cupboard, giving the sheer size of it) before settling her self, cross-legged on the floor by Malfoy.

"I'm glad you wrote," She announced with deadly seriousness, "The nargals are under threat, if the culling keeps up much longer they're not going to last-"

"Luna" Terry interrupted, his voice unusually sharp, "that is _not_ what I wanted to talk about. We have bigger problems."

Malfoy adapted a mock-serious face "oh yes, from what Boot's said to us already it's simply _dire_."

The Ravenclaw boy shot him a fierce glare and continued, "Since that little…incident on the astronomy tower, Ron Weasly has taken it upon himself to announce to the world that we are…dating."

"Dun duh duh!"

"Shut it Malfoy,"

"Here, here"

"You were laughing!"

"Yeah well…Shut it Malfoy"

"Both of you shut it!" Terry snapped, "My point is that we _aren't_ dating."

"I concur." Stated Luna, absently watching a spider crawl along the roof.

He waited for her to elaborate, she did not.

"Well it's all well and good that you concur but THAT DOESN'T HELP THE SITUATION!"

"And what do you suggest, would help the situation?" she replied coolly, "a denial will seem like we're trying to cover it up."

Terry looked at her, dumbfounded, "But if we do nothing people will think its true! Is that what you want! To just let them dictate our lives! I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT! NOT THIS DAY!" he screamed hysterically leaping to his feat and grabbing the closest object, intending to throw it at the next person who dared to oppose him.

"Boot," soothed Seamus calmingly, "you need to put the mop dow- ARRRGHHH!"

"And here was me thinking I was the only one who wanted to do that."

"SHUT IT MALFOY!"

"Did the mop give you brain damage or were you always this redundant?"

"THAT'S IT! BOOT, GIVE ME THE MOP! I'M GOING TO BEAT THIS FERRET TO KINGDOM COME!"

"You can't do that!" shouted Luna, for once seeming like she would be the sane one in the circumstance, "Kingdom Come is in an entirely different dimension!" that lasted about 3 seconds.

"I'LL GET A RUN UP THEN!"

"Calm down Seamus!"

"**_ME_** CALM DOWN? YOU'RE THE ONE WHO JUST USED A MOP AS A PROJECTILE!"

"Yes well…I apologize, I was just a little…riled up, but I think I'm ok now." He replied sheepishly, settling himself back on the floor and pinning Malfoy with a glare to silence the sarcastic remark that was forming in his mind at that very moment.

Seamus continued to scowl but took a step back from Malfoy and sat as well "Why do we need to be here anyway, this doesn't involve us!"  
"Because," growled Terry, shifting his glare to the Gryffindor, "if you two had been less cryptic and just shouted 'HIDE' when you knew people were coming we could have hidden too, rather than subjecting ourselves to this humiliation!"

"Humiliation," repeated Luna, in a tone of mild surprise, "is that what I am?"

"No! I just meant," he fumbled for an excuse, "the astronomy tower! I mean it's so tacky, gives people a bad reputation!"

She eyed him gravely for a moment before brightening as an idea struck her.

"I know what we need to do." She announced with absolute assuredness.

"What?" questioned Boot carefully, wary of anything that would make this particular girl smile.

"Its flawless, after this, no one will think we're going out," she continued, avoiding her fellow Ravenclaw's question, "you two," she pointed to Draco and Seamus, "go on ahead, we'll meet you in the charms corridor in a minute,"

They both complied, Seamus shooting her a curious look while Malfoy just grinned, undoubtedly having 'read' her plan already.

Even after they had left, Luna still refused to reveal the plot, simply warning him to 'follow her lead'. Five minutes after the departure of the others, the Ravenclaws walked silently out of the 'room' and down to the packed charms corridor.

Still confused, Terry turned to ask the blonde girl what was happening, only to find her in tears with a furious expression on her usually airy features.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!" she yelled angrily, "HOW CAN YOU JUST SAY, 'WE'RE BREAKING UP' AND EXPECT IT TO BE DONE? JUST LIKE THAT?'

The Ravenclaw boy watched in horror as people started to stop and gawk at his 'break-up'.

"AFTER EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN THROUGH, EVERYTHING YOU SAID TO ME! IT WAS ALL LIES! YOU SAID I WAS YOUR MOON-FLOWER!"

"I DID NOT!" he shouted back, finally regaining the use of his voice, all eyes were now on him.

He didn't know what possessed him to do it but in a split second he was yelling again, "I NEVER CALLED YOU THAT! YOU'RE REMEMBERING SOMEONE ELSE! DID YOU CHEAT ON ME?"

He could have sworn he heard a snort of laughter coming from within the crowd.

Luna, for her part, didn't miss a beat, "WELL IF I DID IT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOU NEVER SHOWED ME ANY LOVE! I NEED LOVE! LOVE ME!"

"NEVER!" he roared back dramatically.

"THEN YOU'RE RIGHT _BOOT,_" she spat, "WE _ARE_ OVER!" and with that final statement she stormed back down the corridor and out of sight.  
Not sparing a glance at any of the spectators (bar one rather stern glare to Seamus who was shaking with silent laughter) he quickly strode in the opposite direction in complete shock.

It was unthinkable.

Terry Boot had just made a complete fool of himself.

And it was fun.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

After retrieving his broom and quidditch uniform from the dungeons, a small wave of fear crept up Draco's spine. He really had intended to ask Boot about the dementors in relation to the match, but he had been scared he might tell him not to play and he couldn't just back out of the game now, Slytherin would lose!

He shook his head lightly and began the walk down to the pitch. As he drew closer the headache that had been quietly poking at him started to pound relentlessly, he winced slightly and clenched his jaw but continued on, none the less.

He marched determinedly into the change rooms as per usual, shrugging off Urquhart's scolding for being late. He changed as quickly as he could, giving the circumstances and followed the line of players as they made their way onto the pitch, struggling to keep himself upright.

Out side it was deafening, the space in his head that wasn't filled with pain was taken up by the loud cheers and boos of the crowed, small droplets of blood began to drip out of his ears. in a stroke of genius earlier that day, he'd put a modified impervius charm on his ears so any blood would automatically bounce off of him before anyone could notice, it was a little disturbing to see tiny drops of your own blood fly past you but he managed to ignore them as he mounted his broom and kicked off. For the next 5 minutes the seeker's only coherent thought was to 'find that stupid little winged ball before he died', it had seemed like a fairly good ultimatum at the time.

The blob of color logic told him was Chang was tailing him and for the life of him Draco didn't know why, he was barely up to moving the broom at all, let alone flying anywhere useful.

He raised an eyebrow at her, to which, judging by the red that now joined the other mass of color, she blushed.

He rolled his eyes and was about to turn away when a thought struck him, or rather, a feeling.

Chang was nervous.

And for that split second he had felt her nervousness, the force that had been feeding off him, let up.

He shut his eyes and tried to search for another emotion, it wasn't long before huge torrents of excitement, flooded his system, engulfing the pain and sending jolts through him.

He shivered slightly and snapped his eyes open, frantically seeking out the snitch. It must have been quite a sight to see, one of the seekers bouncing from lethargic to hyperactive in half a second, but that's what happened.

Draco twitched his broom in every direction, circling the field at top speed, racing to one end, before breaking sharply and going back again. Luckily for him, most spectators seemed to take this as a diversionary tactic, rather than a sporadic display of insanity.

As far as it went diversionary wise, it was working, Cho was tiring after trying fruitlessly to catch the Slytherin seeker, but Draco hadn't even noticed her, he was jittering excitedly on his broom, flicking his gaze across the field to the Ravenclaw goal hoops were. And there it was. That flash of gold. He didn't even pause, launching himself full pelt at the hoop, not even noticing when he had stared to spin torpedo-style, before grabbing the snitch in one rapid movement.

_YES, YES! I CAUGHT IT, IM SO BLOODY HAPPY, no not happy, EXCITED, THIS IS SO SUSPECEFUL_

The voice was yipping in his ear but something else (presumably logic) was telling him, the excitement was over, there wasn't anymore suspense. Gradually, he let the feeling drain away, with every second the crushing pain was ebbing back into him.

The moment his feet hit the ground, Draco was practically running back into the castle, not bothering to change. Just one minute after he'd bolted into the deserted common room and collapsed on the couch, the wall reopened to admit Daphne Greengrass.

It was at this point Draco knew he was in trouble.

Daphne, was the kind of person who asked questions, lots of them, it would all seem like innocent curiosity, right up until her eyes would narrow and she'd switch into what was commonly referred to as 'lawyer-Daphne', usually Draco found this insanely hilarious to witness, needless to say this was not one such occasion.

She looked him over, taking his slightly paler than normal complexion and the instability in his posture,

"Are you sick?" she asked finally after completing her inspection.

He deliberated carefully over his answer, knowing what one slip up could mean, "Just a bit" he answered slowly.

She paced slowly in front of him, "are you on any potions?"

"No"

"Drugs?"

"No"

"Miscellaneous substances of an illicit nature?"

"Re-phrase"

"Have you ingested any unrecognizable substances?"

"Yes Daph, I ate some gum/lint hybrid I found under the table"  
"Do you have a sample?"

He rolled his eyes, "Sarcasm Daphne,"

"Is sarcasm a defense mechanism for you?"

"No, I just never had any friends!"  
"Is that a yes?"

"I'm lonely Daphne, be my friend!"

"Draco-"

"DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Arrghh!" she growled, throwing her hands up and falling onto the couch next to him, if Daphne was the lawyer, then Draco was undeniably the defendant pleading insanity.

"Fine," the brown-haired girl sighed, exasperated, "keep your secrets, see if I care!"

"But you do care! YOU _ARE_ MY FRIEND!" he yelped in mock relief.

She shot him a sharp glare, "Just because I won't torture information out of you, doesn't mean I won't torture you just for the hell of it!"

He laughed slightly and she shot him a quizzeld look, and with good reason. They weren't good friends, occasionally they would sit next to each other in charms and chat or join together to hex someone, but that was about the extent of it, in all the time she'd known him, Daphne had NEVER made Draco laugh.

She narrowed her eyes, "Your acting odd."

"What, not even gonna _ask_ now?" he questioned, effectively hiding his nervousness.

"Well its not a question," she tilted her head, watching him intently, "your laughing, you don't laugh a lot, and you've been disappearing lately, saying you have homework but I'm in most of your classes and I haven't had much," she paused slightly, contemplating him silently, "usually I'd say you were seeing someone but that wouldn't account for the sickness, there's something going on with you Draco Malfoy and I _will_ find out what." She had recited this statement idly, as if it was something she had barley given any thought to it, but the accusation was clear.

Before he could reply, Draco's ears were suddenly assaulted by the cheers of entirety of Slytherin trooping in.

"OH DRAKEY THAT WAS WONDERFUL!" shouted Pansy, smiling from ear to ear.

Blaise followed her in, smiling casually, "Yeah that was a great game, but what was up with the psycho flying?"

Pansy rolled her eyes throwing her arms around Draco in a hug, "Oh who cares what it was, Hooch loved it!"

While the rest of his house celebrated around him, Draco's gaze near left Daphne, she appeared at ease, smiling happily at her house mates, but her appearance was the last thing on the empaths mind.

He was a little preoccupied with the raw determination coming off her in waves.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

It was 10pm and Seamus Finnigan was well and truly ready to sleep. He had spent his day, plotting a breakup with nerds and a jerk, being viciously assaulted by one of aforementioned nerds, before watching the jerk play the craziest game of quidditch he'd seen in a long time, and was now officially tired.

"Night Dean!" he called from the top of the boy's staircase.

"What's the secret Seam?" his best friend yelled back.

Seamus smiled blearily, while he hadn't told his friends what he knew about Malfoy, he was using the fact that for once in his life, he had a secret to taunt them.

"The secret kind!" he shouted, before entering the dormitory.

Within minute he was lying, face down on his bed(and quite possibly slowly suffocating himself), and lazily patted his hand onto the bedside table, searching blindly for the 'off' switch on his light, after several seconds of search with no avail, he sighed and lifted himself up to look for the switch and groaned at what he saw,

_Stair room, 10:30 don't be late!-Boot_

That stupid parchment, he had spent more than enough time working on 'inter-house relations' for one day.

After dismissing the idea of pretending he didn't get the message (Boot would kill him) he grabbed his cloak and wandered towards the door at which point he immediately perked up. He was going to have to sneak out.

That was so cool.

Or so Seamus had decided.

Peaking out into the common room, the Irish boy cringed, it was pretty packed, that would make this difficult, quietly shutting the door again, he set to work, devising a plan.

He had never been any good at disillusionment charms and he didn't have an invisibility cloak so there wasn't allot he could do by way of invisibility, but there was something he could do for camouflage.

He smiled to himself and muttered _'umbra'_. The effect was instantaneous, a black mist shrouded around him. The shadow charm.

Quickly and quietly he snuck out the door and down the stairs towards the portrait hole, dodging into dark corners whenever someone looked his way, he had almost made it out when…

"MY SHADOW IS BIGGER THAN YOUR SHADOW"

He stared shocked at the tiny first year, pointing directly at him. A larger first year looked incredulously at the 'shadow'.

"That's not your shadow, you just used some charm to make that!" he growled.

"I did not," piped the first one, "I'll prove it! Just you watch," he started to flail his arms wildly, Seamus realized just in time what he was doing, and began to mimic the flailing, subtly inching closer to the portrait.

Over the duration of the next 5 minutes, the 6th year Gryffindor found himself flailing, moon walking and doing several poses he would later claim were strictly mythological, trying to sate the small boy.

Eventually his slight movements paid off, finally bringing him to the portrait, taking a deep breath he waited until the first year's back was turned before leaping out, making a wild dash to get away, he faintly heard yells of 'WHERE'D IT GO!' as he turned the corner racing towards the stair room. Even with that catastrophe, however, the sandy-haired boy _still_ managed to be pleased with himself, for just _one_ reason that was echoing through his mind:

Seamus Finnigan, shadow walker.

He grinned.

Now **_that_**, was so cool.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo**

As he waited anxiously for the others to arrive, Terry restrained the urge to kick something, here he was again, _back_ under the stairs, **_hoping_** that the companions from before would show! But he had to talk to them! This was a matter of dire importance, almost as much as the 'Luna/Terry incident' from that morning.

The door opened to admit a flushed Draco Malfoy.

"This had better be important Boot!" he spat angrily, "Do you know what I had to do to get Greengrass off my tail, I had _bribe_ Blaise, _BLAISE_! I am now in debt to the only person in this school, likely to organize a _coo_!"

"When and where!" came the excited tones of Luna as she too entered the room, followed almost immediately by…a shadow?

"Uhh…" started Malfoy, "what the hell is that!"

"Hmm?" hummed Luna distractedly, before turning o find the shadow, "Oh hello, welcome to earth!" she greeted cheerily.

"Well thanks," the shadow replied, with a familiar Irish accent, it muttered a finite incantatem, and the fog lifted to reveal a grinning Seamus, "but I've always felt welcome here."

Draco looked mock confused at that comment, "Now that can't be true!"

The Gryffindor's grin vanished as he scowled and sat on the floor, looking determinedly away form the Slytherin.

"A shadow charm," Terry muttered quietly, "very impressive," he shook himself out of his dais and turned back to Malfoy, "You cheated!"

The blond looked perplexed, "Actually for once, I didn't"

"You used your powers!" the Ravenclaw boy yelled outraged.

Draco just smirked infuriatingly, "First of all Boot, I only used them to stop my brain from imploding, the energy was just a bonus, and second of all, Hooch has made me read the rules and regulations for quidditch backwards and forwards and NOWHERE does it state that 'it is strictly forbidden for any player to use powers of an empathical nature to siphon excitement from spectators, even if it is to prevent the inwards explosion of their skull.'"

"Yes" Terry seethed, "but there is a rule about non –humans not being allowed to play!"

The room got deathly quite silent.

From the looks of him, Draco was just barely managing to keep down a flame of anger or worse.

"I, am human," he bit out, in a tone that left no room for argument, before standing and stomping angrily to the door, before throwing back over his shoulder "and I DIDN'T CHEAT!"

Seamus stared stunned after him while Luna sneered uncharacteristically at Terry.

"You should NOT have said that." she snapped, all traces of her usual self gone as she fled the room.

For a long while he and Seamus just sat there in silence, before the Gryffindor grew restless.

"Well for what its worth," he stood and quickly re-cast the shadow charm, "I thought you had a good point." He nodded sagely before heading back to Gryffindor tower.

And with that one complement, Terry decided it was the cruelest thing he had ever said.

**AN-R&R, good or bad**


	8. Silent Apologies and Deafening Pleas

**AN-I'm sorry this one took so long again, I had a bit of writers block but I've figure it out now so hopefully I'll have the next chapter up on Sunday, Also, thank you to Punkindoodle, shelimar, silke knuts(and thanks for telling your friend), ryan and nick peterson for your reviews, you guys are the greatest. And I've been asked weather there are any Draco/Luna vibes going on, and I'll just say that I'm going to leave all the options open for ships (in the future, for the time being Draco will be single) so right now its just friendship (and I use the term loosely) vibes, but yes, Luna is probably the one who's warmed up to Draco the most. **

**There is a short flashback in this chapter, the start and end of it will be demonstrated by this :--- .It will also be written in italics**

**For anyone who doesn't know, a stalactite is...well i suppose the best way to put it would be that its an icicle that hangs from a ceiling **

One, two three, four five-

_SKIP_

One two three four, five-

_SKIP_

One two three four five-

_SK-_

That was it!

Draco stumbled back, hastily pulling out of Nott's thoughts.

While there was not much to do in History of Magic, he was absolutely positive someone in the room had to have more entertaining things on their mind than his housemate's 'SKIP' pattern (which he had been tuning in and out of for the last 20 minutes).

He glanced silently around the room, Pansy was out, he'd already spent a good deal of time piecing together her thoughts one why one of her socks was longer than the other, and Blaise was, as usual, enthralled with Binns.

Draco rolled his eyes, that boy could snore through Snape's most terrifying lecture but give him the dullest ghost in the world, prattling on about history, and he was in heaven.

"Because 'apparently'," thought the blonde, air quotes and all, "Binns was key in the assignation of the Minister of Magic in 1867"

Both he and Pansy had tried on numerous occasions to remind Blaise that the Minister in 1921 was still alive and one of the longest living wizards to date, but he had just tapped his nose and told them 'of course he is guys, of course he is', there was nothing left to be done but beat the life out of him with a book…or that was Pansy's theory at least.

He was slightly disappointed to find he'd already examined the thoughts of all of the Slytherins and most of the Hufflepuffs without finding anything more interesting than what Hannah Abbot likes on her sandwich, but there had to be _someone _he could focus on, he just had to avoid hearing it again. Since that first time in the dungeons he'd heard the 'help me' voice twice, once in the library and once in the hall, and both times it had been accompanied by the overwhelming feeling of fear and desperation. It usually hit him when he was totally relaxed (which was, in his opinion, just mean), so keeping his mind occupied was essential, of course there was _something_, he had yet to put to much thought into,

_No, I am not even going to start thinking about what that stupid __halfblood__ bookworm said, as if filth like that is worth listening to._

The blond stifled a groan as the bell rang, he had DADA next and after years of 'cursed' teachers, Dumbledore had been unable to find any one for the job and had taken it upon himself to teach the class, much to the Slytherins annoyance.

"Oh Merlin, not another lesson with _him_" moaned Nott, as soon as they'd left the classroom.

"Him?" questioned Daphne, sideling up next to Draco

"He-who-is-named-far-to-often" Blaise explained mockingly, causing the rest to laugh

"I don't see why we need this class" announced Pansy, loftily, "if we were to be attacked, I think it would be far more useful for us to have been doing sprint courses."

The smirk that had been playing on Draco's face died as a small hiss of fear hit each of them, but it was quickly pushed aside as they entered the class room.

As soon as he sat down at his seat, Draco found himself suppressing a grin, if nothing else, this would be a great opportunity to see what was really going on in the old fool head, he hadn't dared to try before, fearful that he might sense the presence with his occlumency and know what had happened, but Snape was an occlumence too

And that mourning he'd gotten confirmation that occlumency didn't even start to detect an empaths presence.

_---_

_He had been in potions, enjoying yet another lecture on 'where Longbottom went wrong' when his concentration on the potions master had become a little too intense and one of his thoughts had slid into the blond's mind. Snape's voice rang in his head_

_**Kettle**_

_It was brimming with amusement, obviously the empath had been confused(and praying that his favourite professor didn't just think random words and delight in how hilarious they were, it sounded to…Dumbledore) until ,that is, he heard it._

_Hermione Granger was making little sounds of anger every five seconds, on the mark, and they were getting higher pitch by the second._

_Needless to say, he'd spent the rest of the class, comforted by the thought that Snape really did enjoy torturing the Gryffindors as much as he claimed to._

---

And now was his chance to see if Dumbledore's mind really did revolve around bowing down to the 'almighty muggles'…or fire, as Blaise had suggested countless times.

"Hello again, I trust you are all well?" the professor began happily, "now last lesson, I believe we were studying the cado glacies charm, now today we're going to put it into practise, keep in mind that it is an exceptionally difficult spell, so should you be unable to achieve it, do not feel any the worse about it," he smiled blandly causing half the room to smile back and the other half to roll there eyes, "now!" he announced cheerfully, clapping his hands and taking a step back, "I will demonstrate," he held his wand level and clearly recited "_cado glacies_"

Quickly and quietly three stalactites crept down from the ceiling until they were hanging low to the floor, the class 'awwed' and 'pffted' respectively.

"Alright then," he said, waving away the ice, "hop to it."

They did indeed 'hop to it' with out much success, typically, Granger had gotten the furthest, but even she only had a few drops of water leaking from the roof.

Draco sighed, with all this excitement there was no way he was going to be able to single out just the one, his plan was ruined, tuning out the buzzing excitement around him, he lifted his wand to attempt the spell.

"_Cado glacies"_

the effect was instantaneous, ice shot from the ceilings and the floors, encasing him, with only small gaps left uncovered, as fast as the ice had hit so did the voice, faster and louder than ever before

_-HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME-_

he shut his eyes and tried desperately to calm his pounding heart, and quell the fear and desperation dripping from those words but it wasn't helping, they just kept chanting, he could vaguely hear the shouts of "Mister Malfoy! Are you alright! Mister Malfoy!" and he tried with everything he had to reach it, to hear, only that voice

_Please stop I can't help you_

He wasn't sure how it had happened but that had been his own voice

_Yes! _The other voice returned, and for the first time he noticed how raspy it was, as if barley used, _YOU MUST HELP ME, YOU CAN, ONLY YOU! PLEASE! PLEASE!_

The desperate pleas combined with the heavy bursts of sadness and desperation were twisting Draco's heart. Which was very strange, he was never the type to feel sadend by someone else's pain, but this time he wasn't really getting a choice.

Disturbed by this, he focused all his thoughts on shutting out the voice, and it was working, until eventually all that was left was a pathetic whisper, pleading with him to help it.

"MISTER MALFOY CAN YOU HEAR ME!" he was jolted back to reality by the commanding voice of Albus Dumbledore.

"Ye-es" he responded weekly, stuttering as he looked at his surroundings, the ice was still there and he could just make out the top of the old man's hat through one of the holes near the roof.

He heard the headmaster give a sigh of relief, "are you alright?"

"Y-" he stumbled, trying to force out the words, but it just reminded him of how not ok the owner of that voice was.

"Mister Malfoy," Dumbledore's voice came again softly, "are you ok?"

That snapped him out of his dais, the very last thing he wanted was the old coot worrying about him.

"Fine!" he snapped in a business like tone, "a little chilly though, so if you wouldn't mind getting me out of here!"

The professor sighed again although this one sounded exasperated, "can anyone please tell me why I have not let mister Malfoy out yet?"

He could practically hear Granger's hand fly up.

"Yes Miss Granger" a word picture was very quickly forming.

"Cado glacies," she recited knowingly, "can only be reversed by its maker or by fire, this is why it is such an effective tool when one is defending ones self."

Draco rolled his eyes, "yes, yes 10 ice cubes to Gryffindor," he grumbled unhappily, "finite incantatem," the ice receded into roof and the Slytherin glared as the familiar faces of his class mates came into view.

"OH DRAKEY!" screeched Pansy, launching herself onto him and holding tight, "you're ok! I was so worried!"

"Well" said the headmaster, regaining his cheer, "it appears that this classroom is not in the best of states" he gesture to the small puddles spotting the room, failed attempts to cast the charm, "I will dismiss you early today, have a pleasant day"

Students rushed towards the door, only to be stoped once again by the headmaster's voice, "Oh yes and 20 ice cubes to Slytherin, for and excellent first attempt, and another five for an even more excellent pun,"

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo **

In her 6 years at Hogwarts, Parvati Patil, had learnt three basic laws about the epic fights between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy

1-They were always started by Malfoy

2-No one outside of Slytherin was his side

3-if his friends were there, Harry would always win (if there was a duel Hermione would help and if it was a fist fight…Ron was giant)

These three basic rules were what had helped her pass divination, when in doubt, predict a fight between Harry and Malfoy, using the three rules as details, and it had worked well, right up until the day it didn't.

The lunch bell had just rung, she and Lavender had been sitting in the recently reopened library alternately chatting excitedly about what had just happened in the DADA lesson, and staring avidly at Malfoy as he recounted the story to his Slytherin friends, when something odd happened.

"That's cruel Ronald Weasly"

Glancing over to the source of the voice, she was surprised to find Luna Lovegood glaring avidly at Ron, while Harry and Hermione stared on confused.

"What's cruel?" he questioned, oblivious to what had set her off.

"You," she sated plainly, "you with your 'it's too bad he didn't just get trapped in there for good' he could have been hurt!"

"It's just Malfoy, Luna-"

"'Just' Malfoy, Weasel?" came a cold drawl.

"Yeah," agreed Ron defiantly, staring down at the Malfoy in question, "you could have been stuck in that small confined space for all eternity, just like your old man."

"Ron" hissed Hermione, reproachfully.

"Oh tell your mother to relax Weasel," he snarled, "like I care what filth like you says" she couldn't be sure, but Parvati could have sworn she'd seen Malfoy's fist tighten as he spoke those words but he had regained his composure in a heartbeat, "besides, its funny really, hearing a _Weasly_ insult _my_ father, with the one you've got."

Harry tried to hold Ron back in vain as the red head ran at Malfoy, the entire audience to this fight, expected Malfoy to be on the ground in seconds. He was not.

A grin popped onto the blond's face and he side stepped Ron at lightning speed, but the Gryffindor would not give up that easy, he swung a punch at Malfoy's head which, to his and everyone else shock, was blocked easily with one hand before that same hand collided with the Weasly's face knocking him back several steps.

Wait a second, there was no way Malfoy could overpower Ron.

The Gryffindor girl shook her head.

This was not normal Malfoy behaviour.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Professor Flitwick's tiny voice echoed throughout the library.

"Another fight mister Malfoy" he snipped disappointedly, "for such a promising student I don't under-"

"He didn't start it" called a lone voice, the crowd parted to revel Terry Boot, a solemn expression on his face, "Ron threw both the first punch and insult, and when Malfoy hit back, it was self defence"

The silence was deafening, had someone other than Malfoy's friends really just defended him?

Flitwick looked surprised, but when no one protested the explanation he turned back to the two boys, "Very well, 50 points form Gryffindor and detention mister Weasly, and 15 points from Slytherin, for retaliation," he announced, before nodding briefly to Terry and leaving the library.

The students all stared at Terry in shock, Ron was the first to speak.

"What was that Boot! You just helped Malfoy!" he shrieked in outrage.

"I-I"fumbled the Ravenclaw, seemly just as confused as everybody else, "I- just-"

"I think" interrupted the Lovegood girl, smugly, "that what Terry means to say is that even through he's 'just Malfoy', he is still human, and he did what any human would do, he did what was necessary for survival," she looked pointedly at both Boot and Malfoy.

Things gradually began to calm down after that and Parvati turned stunned to Lavender.

"Malfoy just won a fight with Ron."

"I know! He's like half his size!" her best friend bubbled back, clutching her ash blond hair and squealing excitedly.

"And Boot was right! Ron started it! He was the one being mean!"

Both girls slipped into silent contemplation.

'He broke my rules' Parvati pondered indignantly, right before another part of her brain pushed its way in.

'He broke _rules_' it whispered, and she smiled.

"Lav, I think I'm going to start calling Ron, Weasel."

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo **

Lack of experience, that's what he was blaming it on.

It was a rare occasion that Terry Boot would apologise, not because he was exceptionally proud, but simply because it was a rare occasion that Terry Boot did something that warranted an apology.

So that's why he'd chocked.

It wasn't that he was nervous.

He could have done it if Luna hadn't…done it for him.

Yep you know what? That's what it was, it wasn't about the inexperience, it was Luna's fault. A fault he was about to correct, he had messaged Draco to meet him in the stair room, he was going to apologise properly, he bit his lip.

He definantly wasn't nervous.

Not at all.

Was that footsteps?

Maybe he should go.

Before he could make his escape he was confronted with three blondes, all of whom laughing hysterically.

He waited for them to stop laughing.

They did not.

He reached for the mop…

"Boot!" more laughter, "put that down!"

"I don' think so!" he shouted, holding the mop like a weapon, "not until I'm entirely positive you're sane!"

"I am!"

"Then stop laughing!"

"I CAN'T"

"I HAVE TO SAY MALFOY, THAT'S NOT THE BEST PROOF YOU COULD HAVE GIVEN!"  
"Terry," Seamus giggled slightly, "he can't stop laughing because Lovegood won't stop laughing"

The Ravenclaw boy gave him an incredulous look, "I thought you had that under control?"

"Well" laugh, "I'm tired! SHUT HER UP!"  
"LUNA!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she breathed deeply to regain her composure, although the smile remained in place.

Malfoy glared at her.

She started giggling.

He took one second to look horrified before apologising profusely.

Ah.

Terry took a deep breath.

If Malfoy could do it, do could he.

"STOP LAUGHING FINNIGAN! If I can use these powers to beat up the Weasel they'll certainly work-"

"I," Terry interrupted determinedly, "I'm repentant"

Dam.

He was nervous.

Judging by the look on Draco's face, he knew it.

"Repentant you say?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, "I'm afraid you're going to have to dumb that down a bit, we have a Gryffindor in our midst"

"HEY!"

"Finnigan, what does repentant mean?"

"…Carry on"

"I thought so," he nodded dismissively, "well, Boot?"

Terry shook his head, what he was doing, he could say 'sorry', it wasn't as if Malfoy could deny him, he needed him.

With that thought in mind, he tried once again, "I'm orrysay."

The blond boy gaped at him, "did you just use pig Latin?"

"Umm" he mumbled back, going over the sentence in his head, "good Merlin I did", he shook himself again more forcefully, "look Malfoy, when I stood up for you today, that was my silent apology, I'm sorry, you can take it or leave it." he looked at the Slytherin and stuck out his hand expectantly.

Draco seemed to consider it. Really consider it, and Terry knew why, as hard as it was for him to apologise, it was 10 times worse for Malfoy to accept it, it was completely against is nature to be forgiving, feeling the Ravenclaw's actual regret, however, appeared to have an effect as after a minute of contemplation he took the offered hand and nodded.

Terry sighed in relief and smiled slightly while Draco smirked.

"You should know Boot," he said seriously, "traditionally silent apologies aren't not verbalised," he nodded in thought, "hence the name"

Seamus laughed slightly, but abruptly stoped soon after, "I _**did not**_ just laugh at one of Malfoy's jokes" he muttered assuredly.

"Right," grinned the Slytherin in question, "just like you 'did not' just talk to yourself."

The Irish boy nodded, "right…wait what?"

Luna patted his back comfortingly, "its ok Seamus, I do it to,"

"DO WHAT! I DON'T TALK TO MYSELF!"

Draco sniggered at the Gryffindor's outrage, Luna soon joined him, simply because she found laughter funny.

And Terry?

Why did he laugh when he was in room with a crazy house mate, a confused Gryffindor and a Slytherin who was…well a Slytherin?

Because he felt like it, thankyou very much.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo **

_This is the most interesting thing I have every heard!_

"An' ye see if I put 'im on his tummy, 'e looks like a lil' bird,-"

_Fascinating_

"-rather than a lil' cat-eater, thas' how they lure in prey,"

_That right there is the most important fact. EVER_!

"-they even got themselves a set o' fake wings, can't fly though-"

_I was wrong, THAT one was way better_

"-but there have been rumour that their ancestors could." The half giant concluded, happily.

_BRAVO! BRAVO! That was just enlightening, should we clap? Why isn't anyone clapping? I'm going to start one_

Draco had just drawn his hands back to clap when another urgent thought hit him.

_OH NO YOU DON'T! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! MERLIN, THAT IS THE LAST TIME I'M USING INTEREST AS THE DIVERSIONARY EMOTION! HELL, YOU KNOW WHAT __**NO GRANGER EMOTIONS, PERIOD**_

As the attentive feeling drained out of him, the painful ones settled back in and he quickly latched onto the less extreme concentration of Parvati Patil, after a moment of studying the Gryffindor girl he smiled, she'd just thought of Weasly as Weasel.

_SUPER YAY_

He froze.

_AHHHH! NO MORE PARVATI!!!_

He rapidly dragged himself from her feelings and threw himself into the next person he felt (who judging by the direction, was somewhere near the lake)

Big mistake.

_HELP ME! PLEASE! HELP ME, YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ME LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS! IT HURTS SO MUCH! HELP, PLEASE!_

The bell rang but Draco stayed rooted on the spot. Just listening to the chant.

"Drakey?" Pansy questioned softly, "Drakey are you ok?"

"Yeah," he said monotonously, still enthralled by the voice, "go on without me"

The girl looked confused but shrugged it off and trotted toward the castle, but Draco payed her no mind.

It was so terrible, the screaming was so loud here, and the pain so vivid, with every word the feeling of hopelessness grew stronger until he was sure the owner of the voice was only bothering to say it because they didn't know what would happen if they stoped.

_Maybe, I should just see who it is,_

He took a step towards the lake, instantly the voice rose,

_YES! OH PLEASE YES! HELP ME! MAKE ME NORMAL! MAKE IT GO AWAY! HELP ME!_

The grounds were clear by now and it was obvious there was no one there, but there was still the yelling, urging him closer to the lake until he was staring down into its dark depths. He couldn't hear the voice anymore, it could have been screaming bloody murder and he still wouldn't have heard, the grounds may have been silent but the pain was deafening and that's all he could hear.

He leaned forward and his body threatened to fall in when something beneath the surface moved. A small bite of fear hit him, not nearly as much as the voice had but it was different, this was his fear, and that was all it took to alert him to what was happening.

He ripped himself from the lake running as fast he could the other way, trying his best to ignore the heart wrenching screams echoing through his mind, he could feel something, it was if his heat was literally being ripped in two.

_I have to get away, further, faster, just far enough so it stops, I can't be here-_

…_Don't leave me…_

He tripped slightly as there was a hissing noise and suddenly it was dark.

_Its ok, it's dark but I can't hear it anymore, all quite now_

Draco took a shuddering breath and froze when he noticed his surroundings. He was in the forest, and from the looks of things he was in pretty deep.

He took another breath, he had to decide on a good course of action, and so he attempted to access the situation.

He was:

Alone.

Deep in the forest.

Completely lost.

Utterly terrified of a disembodied voice.

And he had no idea how he'd gotten there.

And for these reasons he figured that the most appropriate course of action was to promptly pass out in that particularly comfortable looking pile of dirt.

**AN- The spell translates as (according to my Online Latin tanslator so I could be wrong) 'Falling Ice' and Just in case anyone's wondering, Parvati's crush is not going to be anything important, its just to keep her more in character. R&R good or bad:)**


End file.
